Ye Changlong, Liu Zhanpeng, Yu Suyang, Fan Zifu, Wang Yinchao
School of Mechatronics Engineering, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China.
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 569830, Singapore.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2023 Jun 26;8(3):271. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics8030271.
Soft robots demonstrate an impressive ability to adapt to objects and environments. However, current soft mobile robots often use a single mode of movement. This gives soft robots good locomotion performance in specific environments but poor performance in others. In this paper, we propose a leg-wheel mechanism inspired by bacterial flagella and use it to design a leg-wheel robot. This mechanism employs a tendon-driven continuum structure to replicate the bacterial flagellar filaments, while servo and gear components mimic the action of bacterial flagellar motors. By utilizing twisting and swinging motions of the continuum structure, the robot achieves both wheeled and legged locomotion. The paper provides comprehensive descriptions and detailed kinematic analysis of the mechanism and the robot. To verify the feasibility of the robot, a prototype was implemented, and experiments were performed on legged mode, wheeled mode, and post-overturning motion. The experimental results demonstrate that the robot can achieve legged and wheeled motions. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that the robot still has mobility after overturning. This expands the applicability scenarios of the current soft mobile robot.
软体机器人展现出了令人印象深刻的适应物体和环境的能力。然而，当前的软体移动机器人通常采用单一运动模式。这使得软体机器人在特定环境中具有良好的运动性能，但在其他环境中表现不佳。在本文中，我们提出了一种受细菌鞭毛启发的腿轮机构，并利用它设计了一种腿轮机器人。该机构采用腱驱动连续体结构来复制细菌鞭毛丝，同时伺服和齿轮组件模仿细菌鞭毛马达的作用。通过利用连续体结构的扭转和摆动运动，机器人实现了轮式和腿式运动。本文对该机构和机器人进行了全面描述和详细的运动学分析。为验证机器人的可行性，制作了一个原型，并在腿式模式、轮式模式和翻身运动方面进行了实验。实验结果表明，该机器人能够实现腿式和轮式运动。此外，还证明了机器人在翻倒后仍具有机动性。这扩展了当前软体移动机器人的应用场景。
