Dutta Saurav Kumar, Ozkan-Aydin Yasemin
Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA.
Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, NIT-Trichy), Tiruchirappalli, 620015, Tamil Nadu, India.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 25;15(1):27143. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-07623-0.
Morphological adaptation is vital for biological organisms navigating changing environments. While robots have sought to emulate this adaptability with adjustable body structures, practical robotic applications remain constrained by the complexity of integrating advanced materials, sophisticated control systems, and novel design approaches. This paper introduces a bioinspired quadruped robot featuring both a laterally undulating spine and posture-changing mechanism, specifically designed for adaptation in complex terradynamic environments. The robot utilizes a symmetrical parallelogram mechanism to precisely control its height and width, enabling it to navigate diverse terrains adeptly, avoid collisions, pass through narrow channels, and negotiate obstacles. Furthermore, the robot achieves stability through lateral undulation, which actively counteracts instability arising from posture changes. This ensures the center of gravity remains within its support triangle for the majority of the locomotion cycle, thereby obviating the reliance on intricate posture-stabilizing sensors or learning algorithms. The experimental results demonstrate the robot's capability to traverse both flat and significantly inclined surfaces (10° uphill and downhill), as well as successfully navigate confined tunnels, down to a narrow width. We observed notable variations in locomotion speed based on posture: certain configurations exhibited speeds that were up to 30% faster than others on surfaces with the least roughness, with similar trends holding for intermediate and maximum roughness. Furthermore, the robot demonstrates energy efficiency; while zero-degree posture showed a modest increase in average power consumption (around 18%) compared to others, the overall energy expenditure across various gaits remained consistently low. This work contributes to the development of versatile and autonomous robotic systems capable of operating in unstructured and unpredictable real-world scenarios, bridging the gap between theoretical adaptability and practical deployment in fields ranging from exploration to disaster response.
形态适应对于生物有机体在不断变化的环境中生存至关重要。虽然机器人试图通过可调节的身体结构来模拟这种适应性,但实际的机器人应用仍然受到集成先进材料、复杂控制系统和新颖设计方法的复杂性的限制。本文介绍了一种受生物启发的四足机器人,它具有横向波动的脊柱和姿势改变机制,专门设计用于在复杂的地形动力学环境中进行适应。该机器人利用对称平行四边形机构精确控制其高度和宽度,使其能够熟练地在各种地形中导航,避免碰撞,通过狭窄通道并跨越障碍物。此外,机器人通过横向波动实现稳定性,这有效地抵消了姿势变化引起的不稳定性。这确保了在大多数运动周期中重心保持在其支撑三角形内,从而无需依赖复杂的姿势稳定传感器或学习算法。实验结果表明,该机器人能够穿越平坦和显著倾斜的表面(上坡和下坡10°),以及成功地在狭窄的隧道中导航,直至狭窄宽度。我们观察到基于姿势的运动速度有显著差异:在粗糙度最小的表面上,某些配置的速度比其他配置快高达30%,在中等粗糙度和最大粗糙度的表面上也有类似趋势。此外,该机器人展示了能源效率;虽然零度姿势与其他姿势相比平均功耗略有增加(约18%),但各种步态的总体能量消耗始终保持较低。这项工作有助于开发能够在非结构化和不可预测的现实世界场景中运行的多功能自主机器人系统,弥合理论适应性与从探索到灾难响应等领域的实际部署之间的差距。
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