Morphologically Adaptive Crash Landing on a Wall: Soft‐Bodied Models of Gliding Geckos with Varying Material Stiffnesses

Abstract

Studies invoking biomitetics have gained significant popularity over the last two decades, allowing for the construction of more lifelike robots inspired by nature. The goal of bioinspired robotics is often twofold: understanding nature's fundamental processes and acquiring the capacity to replicate those processes to ultimately construct improved robotic platforms with similar capability. By examining the underlying principles of locomotion strategies found in nature, researchers sought to develop robots with similar capabilities in aerial, [1,2] aquatic, [3][4][5][6][7][8] and terrestrial [9][10][11][12] environments as well as using the robots as platforms in biomechanics research to understand the fundamentals of animal locomotion. [13] To negotiate compelx environments and flow regimes, animals must be able to perform multimodal locomotion. Highly maneuverable multimodal locomotion is needed for diverse survival needs such as fast escape from predators, quick pursuit, searching for food, breeding, nesting, preserving energy, and migration. [14] The most delicate aspect of multimodal locomotion is the challenging transition from one mode to another at the intersection land-air, water-air, or water-land. Flying and gliding animals transition from air to land by perching on a diverse range of complex, natural, and surfaces. [15] From large birds to microscopic insects, animals rely mostly on passive mechanisms to perch. Birds decelerate in the air utilizing their morphing wings and tail and then land slowly in a controlled fashion as they approach the substrate. During landing, they bend their legs, resulting in a tendon on the ankle's backside to naturally force the toes to grip around a branch. This passively operated mechanism is critical for perching without active gripping control. [16,17] Smaller animals also depend on the functional morphology to increase robustness and reduce neural control effort honeybees use the swinging motion of their abdomen to dissipate residual flying energy to achieve a smooth, stable, and quick landing. [18] Houseflies perch by using their compliant legs to dissipate the high kinetic energy of flight. [19] Perching is not limited to flight animals. Gliding animals in the absence of thrust generation capabilities can also modify their body orientation and body shape to successfully perch. [20][21][22][23] Gliding mammals and flying lizards possess well-defined aerodynamic surfaces allowing them to significantly decelerate their descent and control their body orientation before perching. [24]

Bioinspired robots can foster nature conservation

“…Unlike UAVs, perching and grasping will reduce the reliance on lift generation and thus energy expended. It will also enable the robot to hold position with minimal control effort which is often required for data collection (Roderick et al, 2021;Siddall et al, 2021;Chellapurath et al, 2022). Glide capabilities, like in animals (Zhao et al, 2019;Khandelwal and Hedrick, 2022), can increase the flight time by reducing the dependence on powered flight, reduce noise pollution and make them more robust to aerial perturbations.…”