Abstract
Locusts are a kind of agile insects that can move and maneuver so efficiently in the unstructured terrain and complex environment. This marvel survivability of locusts benefits from their flying-jumping multi-modal locomotion. But until recently, the main influences of the locomotion performance are still a controversial and unknown issue. In this paper, the idea of hybrid inspired method that combines biologically inspired robot with robot inspired biology was proposed to explore the principle of flying-jumping locomotion of locusts. Firstly, we analyzed the influence of leg burrs and flapping wings on the jumping performance by the biological experiments. Nevertheless, individual heterogeneity and uncontrollability of locusts result in the unconvincing results of biological experiments. Therefore, according to the thought of robotics-inspired biology, we proposed and built a locust-inspired robot with flying-jumping locomotion via the principle of metamorphic mechanism based on the biological-inspired robot. Lastly, the preliminary robotic experiments were carried out to validate our thought that the flapping wings and leg burrs of locust have a great influence on the jumping performance. This robotics-inspired biology method remedied the shortcomings of biological experiments through the consistency and controllability of the robot experiments. Meanwhile, through the hybrid inspired research, the results show both the leg burrs and flapping wings can help the locust jump longer and improve the stability by adjusting the landing attitude to some extent, while the biological experiments dedicate that the locust with leg burrs and wings have the self-stability ability.
Highlights
The inspiration of biology as a well-known method has led to the design of biologically inspired robots (Meyer and Guillot, 2008)
According to the idea of the robot inspired biology, we explored the influence of leg burrs, and flapping wings on the jumping performance by robot experiments
We performed systematic experiments to understand the influences between the locomotors and their jumping performance
Summary
The inspiration of biology as a well-known method has led to the design of biologically inspired robots (Meyer and Guillot, 2008). According to the idea of the robot inspired biology, we explored the influence of leg burrs, and flapping wings on the jumping performance by robot experiments. On the aspect of biological experiments, we studied the animals’ biology and locomotion behavior that influences the flying-jumping performance through some unique leg and/or wing surgeries for living locusts. By the thought of robot inspired biology, we carried out the preliminary experiments to validate our thought that the flapping wings and leg burrs of locust have a great influence on the jumping performance. In order to study the influence of leg burrs and flapping wings of locusts on jumping performance, we conducted some biological experiments using one kind of wild east Asian migratory locusts living in China and analyzed their jumping and flying behavior. By observing the influence of the number of burrs in the legs, the flapping wings and the coupling of leg bouncing and flapping motion on the jumping performance, we try to find out the main factors that affect the jumping performance and reveal the mechanism of the coupling movement between the legs and wings
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