3D printed Transforming Robot Wheel, Ohio, USA

Whegs, or "leg wheels," are awesome at clearing obstacles. However, they aren't used often despite their good obstacle clearance. They are less efficient, can actually be slower over smooth surfaces, create a very bouncy ride, and, most importantly, can't be used with encoders to provide movement and position information. On hard, flat surfaces, round wheels are almost always the way to go.

However, outdoors is a different story. GPS data can compensate for the lack of movement information from encoders, there is more space so a bigger spiky robot doesn't get in the way, and the ground absorbs a lot of the impact and makes the ride smoother despite the wheel's shape (snow/sand/grass is soft).

This robot was designed to perform well both indoors and on dynamic surfaces such as snow and grass.

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A short demonstration video of my transforming wheel robot.

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