Soft Modular Legged Robot (SMoLBot) is a miniature, foldable, modular, soft-hybrid legged robot with compliant backbones. SMoLBot's body and locomotion mechanisms are folded out of acetate sheets and its compliant connection mechanisms are molded from Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). High maneuverability and smooth walking pattern can be achieved in miniature robots if high stiffness kinematic parts are connected with compliant components, providing the robot structural compliance and better adaptability to different surfaces. SMoLBot is exploiting features from origami-inspired robots and soft robots, such as low weight and low cost foldable rigid structures and adaptable soft connection mechanisms made out of PDMS. Each single module in SMoLBot is actuated and controlled by two separate DC motors. This enables gait modification and higher degree of freedom on controlling the motion and body undulation of the robot in turning and rough terrain locomotion. Each module has 44.5 mm width, 16.75 mm length and 15 mm height, which is approximately the same size with two DC motors and a LiPo battery. The comparisons between robots with compliant and rigid backbones demonstrate smoother walking pattern, and approximate decrease in body's roll angle from 12 • to 6 • , and pitch from 10 • to 7 • . The independent actuation and control over each leg in n number of modules make SMoLBot an ideal candidate for gait studies. Moreover, the possibility of changing the structural stiffness of the robot with different backbones enables such a compliant modular robot to be used for locomotion optimization studies in miniature scale. Index Terms-Soft robot materials and design, cellular and modular robots, legged robots.
This work introduces the reconfigurable, foldable, legged, and miniature robot (REMIRO), a palm-size modular robot with compliant c-shaped legs. The robot’s body modules are made by folding acetate sheets. The legs connected to these modules are made of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using molding. The backbone modules are made of Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) using 3D printing. In this study, we propose a path tracking algorithm for our robot that enables our modules to move from a random initial location to the pose required to lock with another module. We also design and manufacture backbones with embedded permanent magnets to allow connection between modules. We also present a kinematic model of our robot utilizing c-shaped leg kinematics, predicting the forward differential kinematics of the robot, which is then used to test the path tracking algorithm. Our experiments show that the proposed path tracking algorithm moves our robot to the desired location with an average positioning error of 5mm and an average orientation error of 22°, which are small enough to permit docking between modules.
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