Design, Modeling, and Experimentation of a Bio-Inspired Miniature Climbing Robot With Bilayer Dry Adhesives

Abstract

This paper presents the design, modeling, and analysis of the force behavior acting on a wheel-legs (whegs) type robot which utilizes bilayer dry adhesives for wall-climbing. The motion of the robot is modeled as a slider-crank mechanism to obtain the dynamic parameters of the robot during movement. The required forces and moment to maintain equilibrium as the robot is in motion is then extensively analyzed and discussed. Following the analysis, fundamental measures to attain an operative climbing robot, such as adhesive requirement and torque specification, are then identified. The outcomes of the analysis are verified through experiments and working prototypes that are in good agreement with the design guidelines.

Decentralized Multi-Floor Exploration by a Swarm of Miniature Robots Teaming with Wall-Climbing Units

“…With a common electronics stack on the chassis and reconfigurable wheels, the two design variants developed for the ORION MRS, each has its own set of unique capabilities: (i) O-map: a ground robot equipped with mapping function, live-video feed and distributed autonomy capabilities [8], and (ii) O-climb: a climbing robot equipped with live video feed and inter-floor communication capabilities [24], [25], [27], capable of robust internal and external transitions [26]. As shown in Fig.…”

“…Our MRS system is called ORION, and multiple generations and variants of ORION base units have been developed [8], [24]- [27]. Although this paper focuses on ORION's system-level design, features, and performance, we nonetheless provide in this section critical unit-level information and details about the two key variants: the ground-mapping (Omap) and the wall-climbing (O-climb) units, shown in Fig.…”

Design innovation of mesoscale robotic swarms: applications to cooperative urban sensing and mapping

“…As shown in Fig. 6, the O-map units are equipped with rubber wheels and a ball caster for ease of mobility on various terrains, while the Oclimb units have special wheel-legs with compliant adhesive tapes and a tail for robust climbing (Hariri et al, 2018;Dharmawan et al, 2019aDharmawan et al, , 2019bKoh et al, 2019). Each species serves its specific functions in a heterogenous decentralized swarm using the homogeneous electronics and technologies while maintaining its miniature scale.…”

“…Hence, this requires only short-range local communications. Nonetheless, during the development phase and experimentation, it is often beneficial to have a more refined control system, and this explains our use of a monitoring station connected through the ad-hoc network to the swarm for our multi-floor Compact components: For the purpose of miniaturizing and increasing system performance, reduce the size and mass of components through optimization and new technology development Niu et al, 2014;Singh et al, 2009;Ajay et al, 2015;Weaver et al, 2010Dharmawan et al, 2018aSundram et al, 2018 Low power consumption: To achieve system performance in terms of duration and longevity, reduce power consumption of components, subsystems, and the overall systems through optimization, elimination of leakage or unnecessary functionality, and intelligent energy management Kit et al, 2018;Qureshi et al, 2006;Nguyen et al, 2018;Keese et al, 2007;Dharmawan et al, 2019aTilstra et al, 2015 Modularity: For the purposes of system flexibility and reconfiguration, localize or increase the modularity of the system by: (1) separating modules to carry out functions that are not closely related; (2) confining functions to single modules; (3) confining functions to as few unique components as possible; (4) dividing modules into multiple small and identical modules; (5) collecting components which are not anticipated to change in time into separate modules; (6) collecting parts that perform functions associated with the same energy domain into separate modules Hariri et al, 2018;Stone et al, 2000;Kit et al, 2019Qureshi et al, 2006Keese et al, 2007;Singh et al, 2009;Weaver et al, 2010;Tilstra et al, 2015 Collaborative swarm: To increase the scalability and performance profile of mesoscale robotic systems, develop decentralized communication in a distributed network and adopt cooperative control by sending and receiving relevant data used by a swarm to produce a host of collective actions Chamanbaz et al, 2017;Zoss et al, 2018 Heterogeneity: For the purpose of adaptability, develop system alternatives or complementary architectures with diversification in states, functionality, or reconfigurability Vallegra et al, 2018;Kit et al, 2019 Design process of mesoscale robotic systems Parallel systems testbed & p...…”

Design and Stability Analysis of a Wall-Climbing Robot Using Propulsive Force of Propeller

“…They are only suitable for the walls of magnetically conductive materials, which have poor wall adaptability. Bionic wall mobile robots are based on the use of bionics to make adhesive materials and attach them to the wall contact structure to adhere to the robot [10][11][12][13][14]; biomimetic nature animal foot characteristics for paste or hook [15][16][17][18][19]. This adhesive material is not self-cleaning, the driving control is complicated with fuzzy hook.…”