Xu Haoyuan, Zhi Jiale, Chen Bohan, Zhao Shuyong, Huang Jie, Bi Chongze, Li Lei, Tian Bochen, Liu Yuchen, Zhang Yiyuan, Duan JinXi, Yang Fuqiang, He Xia, Xu Kun, Wu Ke, Wang Tianmiao, Pham Nguyen, Ding Xilun, Wen Li
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
The ShenYuan Honors College, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
Soft Robot. 2025 Feb;12(1):95-108. doi: 10.1089/soro.2023.0253. Epub 2024 Oct 16.
Net-winged midge larvae (Blephariceridae) are known for their remarkable ability to adhere to and crawl on the slippery surfaces of rocks in fast-flowing and turbulent alpine streams, waterfalls, and rivers. This remarkable performance can be attributed to the larvae's powerful ventral suckers. In this article, we first develop a theoretical model of the piston-driven sucker that considers the lubricated state of the contact area. We then implement a piston-driven robotic sucker featuring a V-shaped notch to explore the adhesion-sliding mechanism. Each biomimetic larval sucker has the unique feature of an anterior-facing V-shaped notch on its soft disc rim; it slides along the shear direction while the entire disc surface maintains powerful adhesion on the benthic substrate, just like the biological counterpart. We found that this biomimetic sucker can reversibly transit between "high friction" (4.26 ± 0.34 kPa) and "low friction" (0.41 ± 0.02 kPa) states due to the piston movement, resulting in a frictional enhancement of up to 93.9%. We also elucidate the frictional anisotropy (forward/backward force ratio: 0.81) caused by the V-shaped notch. To demonstrate the robotic application of this adhesion-sliding mechanism, we designed an underwater crawling robot Adhesion Sliding Robot-1 (ASR-1) equipped with two biomimetic ventral suckers. This robot can successfully crawl on a variety of substrates such as curved surfaces, sidewalls, and overhangs and against turbulent water currents with a flow speed of 2.4 m/s. In addition, we implemented a fixed-wing aircraft Adhesion Sliding Robot-2 (ASR-2) featuring midge larva-inspired suckers, enabling transit from rapid water surface gliding to adhesion sliding in an aquatic environment. This adhesion-sliding mechanism inspired by net-winged midge larvae may pave the way for future robots with long-term observation, monitoring, and tracking capabilities in a wide variety of aerial and aquatic environments.
网翅蠓幼虫（毛蠓科）以其在湍急的高山溪流、瀑布和河流中，能在光滑的岩石表面上附着并爬行的非凡能力而闻名。这种卓越的表现可归因于幼虫强大的腹侧吸盘。在本文中，我们首先建立了一个考虑接触区域润滑状态的活塞驱动吸盘理论模型。然后，我们制作了一个带有V形缺口的活塞驱动机器人吸盘，以探索粘附 - 滑动机制。每个仿生幼虫吸盘在其柔软圆盘边缘都有一个朝前的V形缺口这一独特特征；它沿着剪切方向滑动，同时整个圆盘表面在底栖基质上保持强大的附着力，就像其生物原型一样。我们发现，由于活塞运动，这种仿生吸盘能够在“高摩擦”（4.26±0.34千帕）和“低摩擦”（0.41±0.02千帕）状态之间可逆转换，摩擦增强高达93.9%。我们还阐明了由V形缺口引起的摩擦各向异性（向前/向后力比：0.81）。为了展示这种粘附 - 滑动机制在机器人方面的应用，我们设计了一种水下爬行机器人粘附滑动机器人 - 1（ASR - 1），它配备了两个仿生腹侧吸盘。该机器人能够成功地在各种基板上爬行，如曲面、侧壁和悬垂物，并且能够逆着流速为2.4米/秒的湍急水流爬行。此外，我们制作了一种固定翼飞机粘附滑动机器人 - 2（ASR - 2），它具有受蠓幼虫启发的吸盘，能够在水生环境中从快速水面滑行转变为粘附滑动。这种受网翅蠓幼虫启发的粘附 - 滑动机制可能为未来在各种空中和水生环境中具有长期观测、监测和跟踪能力的机器人铺平道路。
