3 research outputs found
GREEMA: Proposal and Experimental Verification of Growing Robot by Eating Environmental MAterial for Landslide Disaster
In areas that are inaccessible to humans, such as the lunar surface and
landslide sites, there is a need for multiple autonomous mobile robot systems
that can replace human workers. In particular, at landslide sites such as river
channel blockages, robots are required to remove water and sediment from the
site as soon as possible. Conventionally, several construction machines have
been deployed to the site for civil engineering work. However, because of the
large size and weight of conventional construction equipment, it is difficult
to move multiple units of construction equipment to the site, resulting in
significant transportation costs and time. To solve such problems, this study
proposes a novel growing robot by eating environmental material called GREEMA,
which is lightweight and compact during transportation, but can function by
eating on environmental materials once it arrives at the site. GREEMA actively
takes in environmental materials such as water and sediment, uses them as its
structure, and removes them by moving itself. In this paper, we developed and
experimentally verified two types of GREEMAs. First, we developed a fin-type
swimming robot that passively takes water into its body using a water-absorbing
polymer and forms a body to express its swimming function. Second, we
constructed an arm-type robot that eats soil to increase the rigidity of its
body. We discuss the results of these two experiments from the viewpoint of
Explicit-Implicit control and describe the design theory of GREEMA
A Systematic Approach to the Design of Embodiment with Application to Bio-Inspired Compliant Legged Robots
Bio-inspired legged robots with compliant actuation can potentially achieve motion properties in real world scenarios which are superior to conventionally actuated robots.
In this thesis, a methodology is presented to systematically design and tailor passive and active control elements for elastically actuated robots.
It is based on a formal specification of requirements derived from the main design principles for embodied agents as proposed by Pfeifer et al. which are transfered to dynamic model based multi objective optimization problems.
The proposed approach is demonstrated and applied for the design of a biomechanically inspired, musculoskeletal bipedal robot to achieve walking and human-like jogging