Abstract
There is a considerable demand for legged robots with exploring capabilities such as passing through narrow pathways. Soft robots can provide a solution for such applications. Here, we propose a soft legged mobile robot with bimorph piezoelectric main body and pre-curved piezoelectric legs. We experimentally demonstrate the performance of the soft mobile robot. The mobile robot can move 70% of the body length per second. In addition, we investigate physical mechanisms behind the locomotion of the mobile robot using a numerical simulation. Interestingly, the mobile robot generates an animal-like running motion. We find that the amplitude difference of the legs, depending on the leg activation condition, may affect the performance of the robot. We also confirm that the soft mobile robot can maintain the movement under impulsive shock owing to its flexibility.
Highlights
Legged robots have received a lot of attention in the past decades owing to the compelling characteristics of exploring challenging artificial and wild terrains[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
These small-scale legged robots can be divided into two types: i) a robot with legs activated by embedded actuators and ii) a robot with legs passively moved by body actuation
We describe the physical mechanisms of the soft mobile robot by a numerical simulation and reveal the relation between the mobility of the robot and the movement of the legs
Summary
Legged robots have received a lot of attention in the past decades owing to the compelling characteristics of exploring challenging artificial and wild terrains[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. As well as large-scale legged robots, there is considerable need for small-scale robots to explore narrow passages and holes by using novel classes of actuators based on new materials, such as electro-active materials[5,10,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. Soft robotics can have a lot of benefits, such as body transformation and shock absorption[28,29,30,31] These characteristics are essential and attractive features for mobile robots exploring unpredictable situations and environments. We describe the physical mechanisms of the soft mobile robot by a numerical simulation and reveal the relation between the mobility of the robot and the movement of the legs
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