Mole‐Inspired Robot Burrowing with Forelimbs for Planetary Soil Exploration

Abstract

The biological world serves as a vast reservoir of inspiration for human innovation, particularly in the realm of robotics designed to navigate intricate granular environments. Among these creatures adept at burrowing, the mole stands out due to its exceptional body structure and unparalleled efficiency, surpassing most engineering burrowing systems. Consequently, the mole serves as an ideal model for designing highly efficient burrowing robots. This study introduces a mole‐inspired robot burrowing with forelimbs, specifically designed for planetary soil exploration. By closely examining the distinctive body morphology of moles, a forelimb burrowing mechanism is devised through biomimetic mapping, and its kinematics is thoroughly analyzed. A robot prototype is developed and an experimental setup is constructed to evaluate its burrowing performance. A series of tests are conducted to assess the capabilities of the robot, including forelimb burrowing, robot crawling, and robot burrowing. The results demonstrate that the proposed mole‐inspired burrowing robot is capable of crawling and burrowing to a certain depth using its forelimbs. Although it exhibits some upward displacement, this issue can be mitigated by modifying the head configuration and adjusting the forelimb posture to effectively overcome the vertical stress and lift force exerted by granular soils due to intensity gradient.