Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots

Earthquake and other disasters nowadays still threat people’s lives and property due to their destructiveness and unpredictability. The past decades have seen the booming development of search and rescue robots due to their potential for increasing rescue capacity as well as reducing personnel safet...

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Main Authors: Yilin Wang, Felix Pancheri, Tim C. Lueth, Yilun Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Biomimetic Intelligence and Robotics
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667379724000408
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author Yilin Wang
Felix Pancheri
Tim C. Lueth
Yilun Sun
author_facet Yilin Wang
Felix Pancheri
Tim C. Lueth
Yilun Sun
author_sort Yilin Wang
collection DOAJ
description Earthquake and other disasters nowadays still threat people’s lives and property due to their destructiveness and unpredictability. The past decades have seen the booming development of search and rescue robots due to their potential for increasing rescue capacity as well as reducing personnel safety risk at disaster sites. In this work, we propose a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg to further improve the environmental adaptability of search mobile robots. Different from the traditional fully-actuated method with independent motor joint control, this leg employs an under-actuated compliant mechanism design with overall semi-tendon-driven control, which enables the passive and active terrain adaptation, system simplification and lightweight of the realized search robot. We have generalized the theoretical model and design methodology for this type of compliant leg, and implement it in a parametric program to improve the design efficiency. In addition, preliminary load capacity and leg-lifting experiments are carried out on a one-leg prototype to evaluate its mechanical performance. A four-legged robot platform is also fabricated for the locomotion tests. The preliminary experimental results have verified the feasibility of the proposed design methodology, and also show possibilities for improvements. In future work, structural optimization and stronger actuation elements should be introduced to further improve the mechanical performance of the fabricated wheeled leg mechanism and robot platform.
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spelling doaj-art-ad943130264e43d2aab6a0e256eeaf2a2025-08-20T01:57:04ZengElsevierBiomimetic Intelligence and Robotics2667-37972024-12-014410018210.1016/j.birob.2024.100182Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robotsYilin Wang0Felix Pancheri1Tim C. Lueth2Yilun Sun3Institute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology, Technical University of Munich, Garching 85748, GermanyInstitute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology, Technical University of Munich, Garching 85748, GermanyInstitute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology, Technical University of Munich, Garching 85748, GermanyCorresponding author.; Institute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology, Technical University of Munich, Garching 85748, GermanyEarthquake and other disasters nowadays still threat people’s lives and property due to their destructiveness and unpredictability. The past decades have seen the booming development of search and rescue robots due to their potential for increasing rescue capacity as well as reducing personnel safety risk at disaster sites. In this work, we propose a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg to further improve the environmental adaptability of search mobile robots. Different from the traditional fully-actuated method with independent motor joint control, this leg employs an under-actuated compliant mechanism design with overall semi-tendon-driven control, which enables the passive and active terrain adaptation, system simplification and lightweight of the realized search robot. We have generalized the theoretical model and design methodology for this type of compliant leg, and implement it in a parametric program to improve the design efficiency. In addition, preliminary load capacity and leg-lifting experiments are carried out on a one-leg prototype to evaluate its mechanical performance. A four-legged robot platform is also fabricated for the locomotion tests. The preliminary experimental results have verified the feasibility of the proposed design methodology, and also show possibilities for improvements. In future work, structural optimization and stronger actuation elements should be introduced to further improve the mechanical performance of the fabricated wheeled leg mechanism and robot platform.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667379724000408Compliant legSemi-tendon-driven mechanismBiomimetic designSearch mobile robot
spellingShingle Yilin Wang
Felix Pancheri
Tim C. Lueth
Yilun Sun
Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots
Biomimetic Intelligence and Robotics
Compliant leg
Semi-tendon-driven mechanism
Biomimetic design
Search mobile robot
title Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots
title_full Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots
title_fullStr Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots
title_full_unstemmed Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots
title_short Design of a spider-inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots
title_sort design of a spider inspired wheeled compliant leg for search mobile robots
topic Compliant leg
Semi-tendon-driven mechanism
Biomimetic design
Search mobile robot
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667379724000408
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AT felixpancheri designofaspiderinspiredwheeledcompliantlegforsearchmobilerobots
AT timclueth designofaspiderinspiredwheeledcompliantlegforsearchmobilerobots
AT yilunsun designofaspiderinspiredwheeledcompliantlegforsearchmobilerobots