The Design Process for Wheel - Robot Integration

In this thesis, the design process for wheel-robot integration was documented and reflected on. The project focused on redesigned certain aspects a half-scale wheelrobot to be integrated with a half-scale CityCar prototype being built by the MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities Group. Primary attention was spent on analyzing the required steering torque need to maneuver the half-scale vehicle, and on implementing a design where the wheel-robots steered about the axis that passed through the center of gravity of the tire component. Budget and time constraints required quick and easy solutions to the design and integration of the wheel-robot components. A halfscale prototype made by Media Lab graduate student Peter Schmitt was used as a benchmark for the new wheel-robot design and an analysis of Schmitt's prototype is documented. Though many ideas and concept variations were explored during the design process, a complete design of the wheel-robot was not finalized in time for this report. More time must be spent in order to finalized an integration process that can be scaled up to the full-scale CityCar for future use in urban mobility improvement. Thesis Supervisor: William J. Mitchell Title: Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences