Abstract
Achieving effective locomotion on diverse terrestrial substrates can require subtle changes of limb kinematics. Biologically inspired legged robots (physical models of organisms) have shown impressive mobility on hard ground but suffer performance loss on unconsolidated granular materials like sand. Because comprehensive limb-ground interaction models are lacking, optimal gaits on complex yielding terrain have been determined empirically. To develop predictive models for legged devices and to provide hypotheses for biological locomotors, we systematically study the performance of SandBot, a small legged robot, on granular media as a function of gait parameters. High performance occurs only in a small region of parameter space. A previously introduced kinematic model of the robot combined with a new anisotropic granular penetration force law predicts the speed. Performance on granular media is maximized when gait parameters utilize solidification features of the granular medium and minimize limb interference.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1383-1393 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Experimental Mechanics |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2010 |
Funding
Acknowledgements We thank Daniel Koditschek, Ryan Maladen, Yang Ding, Nick Gravish, and Predrag Cvitanović for helpful discussion. This work was supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (D.I.G., C.L., and P.B.U.), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) Collaborative Technology Alliance (CTA) under cooperative agreement number W911NF-08-2-0004 (D.I.G. and P.B.U.), and the National Science Foundation (H.K.).
Keywords
- Biomechanics
- Locomotion
- Sand
- Solidification
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Aerospace Engineering
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering