Patent ID: 8186469

Claim:
A mobile robot, comprising: a robot body; a pair of wheels connected to the robot body; a driving motor driving the pair of wheels so as to move the robot body; a leaf spring having a fixed end connected to the robot body and a free end disposed to face the fixed end in a state of being apart from the robot body; and a leaf spring control unit applying force to bend the leaf spring such that the free end of the leaf spring is pulled toward the robot body and then removing the force applied to the leaf spring such that the leaf spring returns to an original state, the leaf spring control unit comprising: a first motor mounted to the robot body; a first gear connected to the first motor so as to be rotated by the first motor; a rotating shaft rotatably mounted to the robot body; a second gear disposed to be apart from the first gear and fixed to the rotating shaft so as to rotate together with the rotating shaft; a supporting member having a vertically-elongating slot; a third gear movably inserted into the slot of the supporting member so as to move along the slot depending on a rotation position of the robot body, thereby selectively engaging the first gear and the second gear; a wire, an end of which is fixed to the rotating shaft and the other end of which is fixed to the leaf spring at a portion near the free end; and a clutch mechanism connected to the rotating shaft so as to allow the rotating shaft to rotate in a direction of bending the leaf spring and so as to selectively allow the rotating shaft to rotate in a direction of unbending the leaf spring.