Yang Kai, Liu Gangfeng, Yan Jihong, Wang Tao, Zhang Xinbin, Zhao Jie
State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems, Harbin Institute of Technology, People's Republic of China.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2016 Oct 21;11(6):066002. doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/11/6/066002.
The highly efficient and agile water-surface locomotion of water striders has attracted substantial research attention. Compared with imitating the horizontal rowing motion, imitating the jumping capability of water striders is much more challenging because the strong interaction in the jumping process easily causes the robot to sink. This study focuses on designing a miniature robot capable of continuously jumping on the water surface. A spring-based actuating mechanism is proposed to produce a large jumping force. The center of gravity of the robot is carefully designed to allow the robot to jump on the surface continuously and smoothly. The influences of several critical factors, including the area of the supporting legs, the spring stiffness, the jumping angle, etc on jumping ability are analyzed by means of dynamic simulation and experiments. The jumping performance under different jumping angles is tested. The fabricated robot weighs approximately 10.2 g and can continuously jump on water with a maximum leap height and length of 120 and 410 mm, respectively. This study helps researchers understand the jumping mechanism of water striders and provides a reference for developing water-jumping robots that can perform various aquatic tasks in the future.
水黾高效且敏捷的水面运动吸引了大量研究关注。与模仿水平划水动作相比，模仿水黾的跳跃能力更具挑战性，因为跳跃过程中的强相互作用容易导致机器人下沉。本研究专注于设计一种能够在水面上持续跳跃的微型机器人。提出了一种基于弹簧的驱动机构以产生较大的跳跃力。精心设计机器人的重心，以使机器人能够在水面上持续且平稳地跳跃。通过动态模拟和实验分析了几个关键因素，包括支撑腿面积、弹簧刚度、跳跃角度等对跳跃能力的影响。测试了不同跳跃角度下的跳跃性能。所制造的机器人重量约为10.2克，能够在水面上持续跳跃，最大跳跃高度和长度分别为120毫米和410毫米。本研究有助于研究人员理解水黾的跳跃机制，并为未来开发能够执行各种水上任务的水跳机器人提供参考。
