1 research outputs found
Bio-inspired Dual-auger Self-burrowing Robots in Granular Media
It has been found that certain biological organisms, such as Erodium seeds
and Scincus scincus, are capable of effectively and efficiently burying
themselves in soil. Biological Organisms employ various locomotion modes,
including coiling and uncoiling motions, asymmetric body twisting, and
undulating movements that generate motion waves. The coiling-uncoiling motion
drives a seed awn to bury itself like a corkscrew, while sandfish skinks use
undulatory swimming, which can be thought of as a 2D version of helical motion.
Studying burrowing behavior aims to understand how animals navigate
underground, whether in their natural burrows or underground habitats, and to
implement this knowledge in solving geotechnical penetration problems.
Underground horizontal burrowing is challenging due to overcoming the
resistance of interaction forces of granular media to move forward. Inspired by
the burrowing behavior of seed-awn and sandfish skink, a horizontal
self-burrowing robot is developed. The robot is driven by two augers and
stabilized by a fin structure. The robot's burrowing behavior is studied in a
laboratory setting. It is found that rotation and propulsive motion along the
axis of the auger's helical shape significantly reduce granular media's
resistance against horizontal penetration by breaking kinematic symmetry or
granular media boundary. Additional thrusting and dragging tests were performed
to examine the propulsive and resistive forces and unify the observed burrowing
behaviors. The tests revealed that the rotation of an auger not only reduces
the resistive force and generates a propulsive force, which is influenced by
the auger geometry, rotational speed, and direction. As a result, the burrowing
behavior of the robot can be predicted using the geometry-rotation-force
relations.Comment: Master's thesis, 62 pages, 40 figures, ProQues