A Bioinspired Dynamical Vertical Climbing Robot

This paper describes the inspiration, design, analysis, implementation of and experimentation with the first dynamical vertical climbing robot. Biologists have proposed a pendulous climbing model that abstracts remarkable similarities in dynamic wall scaling behavior exhibited by radically different animal species. We study numerically a version of that pendulous climbing template dynamically re-scaled for applicability to utilitarian payloads with conventional electronics and actuation. This simulation study reveals that the incorporation of passive compliance can compensate for an artifact’s poorer power density and scale disadvantages relative to biology. However the introduction of additional dynamical elements raises new concerns about stability regarding both the power stroke and limb coordination that we allay via mathematical analysis of further simplified models. Combining these numerical and analytical insights into a series of design prototypes, we document the correspondence of the various models to the variously scaled platforms and report that our approximately two kilogram platform climbs dynamically at vertical speeds up to 1.5 bodylengths per second. In particular, the final 2.6 kg final prototype climbs at an average steady state speed of 0.66 m/s against gravity on a carpeted vertical wall, in rough agreement with our various models’ predictions

Leg Design for Energy Management in an Electromechanical Robot

This paper examines the design of a parallel spring-loaded actuated linkage intended for dynamically dexterous legged robotics applications. Targeted at toe placement in the sagittal plane, the mechanism applies two direct-drive brushless dc motors to a symmetric five bar linkage arranged to power free tangential motion and compliant radial motion associated with running, leaping, and related agile locomotion behaviors. Whereas traditional leg design typically decouples the consideration of motor sizing, kinematics and compliance, we examine their conjoined influence on three key characteristics of the legged locomotion cycle: transducing battery energy to body energy during stance; mitigating collision losses upon toe touchdown; and storing and harvesting prior body energy in the spring during stance. This analysis leads to an unconventional design whose “knee” joint rides above the “hip” joint. Experiments demonstrate that the resulting mechanism can deliver more than half again as much kinetic energy to the body (or more than double the kinetic energy if the full workspace is used), and offers a five-fold increase in energy storage and collision efficiency relative to the conventional design

Optimization Based Motion Planning for Multi-Limbed Vertical Climbing Robots

Motion planning trajectories for a multi-limbed robot to climb up walls requires a unique combination of constraints on torque, contact force, and posture. This paper focuses on motion planning for one particular setup wherein a six-legged robot braces itself between two vertical walls and climbs vertically with end effectors that only use friction. Instead of motion planning with a single nonlinear programming (NLP) solver, we decoupled the problem into two parts with distinct physical meaning: torso postures and contact forces. The first part can be formulated as either a mixed-integer convex programming (MICP) or NLP problem, while the second part is formulated as a series of standard convex optimization problems. Variants of the two wall climbing problem e.g., obstacle avoidance, uneven surfaces, and angled walls, help verify the proposed method in simulation and experimentation.Comment: IROS 2019 Accepte

A Review of Robots for Inspection and Maintenance of Metallic Towers of Electricity Transmission

Transmission towers that support electric power fines are usually inspected manually by workers that climb them and visually inspect to find oxidation points. If oxidation is seen it must be repaired to ensure the integrity of the structure. This process is slow and dangerous for the workers. Due to the possibility of electrical shocks as well as falling from the structures that are around 50 meters high. In recent years the need to substitute human workers in hostile environments by equipments and robots that bring more safety in the realization of these tasks has arisen. In this paper, a bibliographic review of papers that presented conceptions of robots that can climb transmission towers and execute its inspection, search for oxi¬dation points and even do small maintenances is done. Through the use of a patent search methodology a preliminary and a detailed search were done, with a diversity of keywords about the subject as well as its combinations [1]. The preliminary search resulted in 2901 patents, which lead to the detailed search and finally culminated in the analysis of 164 patents, from which four showed technological potential to be analysed in this review

Biorobotics: Using robots to emulate and investigate agile animal locomotion

The graceful and agile movements of animals are difficult to analyze and emulate because locomotion is the result of a complex interplay of many components: the central and peripheral nervous systems, the musculoskeletal system, and the environment. The goals of biorobotics are to take inspiration from biological principles to design robots that match the agility of animals, and to use robots as scientific tools to investigate animal adaptive behavior. Used as physical models, biorobots contribute to hypothesis testing in fields such as hydrodynamics, biomechanics, neuroscience, and prosthetics. Their use may contribute to the design of prosthetic devices that more closely take human locomotion principles into account

Advances in Bio-Inspired Robots

This book covers three major topics, specifically Biomimetic Robot Design, Mechanical System Design from Bio-Inspiration, and Bio-Inspired Analysis on A Mechanical System. The Biomimetic Robot Design part introduces research on flexible jumping robots, snake robots, and small flying robots, while the Mechanical System Design from Bio-Inspiration part introduces Bioinspired Divide-and-Conquer Design Methodology, Modular Cable-Driven Human-Like Robotic Arm andWall-Climbing Robot. Finally, in the Bio-Inspired Analysis on A Mechanical System part, research contents on the control strategy of Surgical Assistant Robot, modeling of Underwater Thruster, and optimization of Humanoid Robot are introduced

A bioinspired dynamical vertical climbing robot

https://repository.upenn.edu/ese_images/1036/thumbnail.jp

A bioinspired dynamical vertical climbing robot

https://repository.upenn.edu/ese_images/1036/thumbnail.jp