Abstract
Bouncing locomotion is used frequently in the animal kingdom for high speed movement over land. Animals also change their stiffness and shape to improve their locomotion ability. Both bouncing movement and stiffness- and shape-changing capabilities have been recently explored in robotics. In this paper a novel soft locomotion robot, VibroBot, is presented, capable of moving using a bouncing gait by inducing whole-body oscillations through rotation of an internal out-of-balance mass. VibroBot is capable of changing both its stiffness and shape to tackle challenging terrain and to overcome obstacles. When the robot is stiff, it is capable of high-frequency oscillatory locomotion suited to movement on hard surfaces, while in a compliant state it uses a lower-frequency higher-amplitude hopping gait suitable for travelling over soft or loose ground. Forward speeds of 8.5 cm/s (0.34 body lengths per second) on hard floor in VibroBot’s stiff state and 5 cm/s (0.2 body lengths per second) on sand in its compliant state were recorded. VibroBot can also selectively change its shape to climb obstacles with heights up to 3 cm (20% of the robot’s height in its stiff state), far greater than its hopping apex height (1 cm). Both simple bouncing gaits and stiffness- and shape-changing abilities show great promise for improving the locomotion abilities of soft robots.
Highlights
Animals move over the land using a wide variety of gaits, including walking, hopping, running, and a large number of high-speed quadrupedal gaits, such as trot, canter, and gallop
This article describes the final design of VibroBot and analyzes the robot’s locomotion mechanism based on its performance in the RoboSoft Grand Challenge Terrestrial Race, along with experiments comparing its kinematics on hard floor and loose sand while in different shape states
The high-frequency slipping locomotion was found to be very effective for movement across hard floors, and VibroBot was able to achieve a forward speed of 8.5 cm/s or 0.34 body lengths/second using this method on flat linoleum flooring
Summary
Animals move over the land using a wide variety of gaits, including walking, hopping, running, and a large number of high-speed quadrupedal gaits, such as trot, canter, and gallop. VibroBot is an affordable soft robot capable of simple hopping locomotion achieved by exciting whole-body oscillations through rotation of an internal out-of-balance mass.
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