Enhancing undulation of soft robots in granular media:A numerical and experimental study on the effect of anisotropic scales  

作　　者：Longchuan Li Chaoyue Zhao Shuqian He Qiukai Qi Shuai Kang Shugen Ma 

机构地区：[1]College of Information Science and Technology,Bejing University of Chemical Technology,Bejing 100029,China [2]School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology,University of Bristol,Bristol BS81TH,UK [3]College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering,Beijing University of Chemical Technology,Beijing 100029,China [4]Thrust of Robotics and Autonomous Systems,The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology(Guangzhou),Guangzhou 511453,China

出　　处：《Biomimetic Intelligence & Robotics》2024年第2期63-70,共8页仿生智能与机器人（英文）

基　　金：supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(ZY2301,BH2316,buctrc202215);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62273340);the Natural Science Foundation of China Liaoning Province(2021-MS-031).

摘　　要：Generating efficient locomotion in granular media is important,although it is difficult for robots.Inspired by the fact that sand vipers usually have saw-like scales,in this study,we design a soft undulation robot with tangential anisotropic friction to enhance the undulation performance of soft robots in granular media.A mathematical model was derived and numerical simulations were conducted accordingly to investigate the effectiveness of tangential friction anisotropy for undulation gait generation in granular media.In particular,we introduce a pseudo-rigid-body dynamics model consisting of links and joints while simulating the pneumatic actuation method to more closely approximate the response of soft robots.Moreover,a soft snake-like robot was fabricated,and its forward and reverse undulations were compared in two sets of controlled experiments.The consistency between the experimental results and the numerical simulations confirms that tangential anisotropic friction induces a propulsive effect in undulation,thereby increasing the robot's locomotion speed.This discovery provides new insights into the design of undulation robots in granular environments.2024 The Author(s).Published by Elsevier B.V.on behalf of Shandong University.This is an open access articleunder the CCBY license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

关 键 词：Granular media Anisotropicity Pseudo-rigid-body model Soft robot UNDULATION 

分 类 号：TP242[自动化与计算机技术—检测技术与自动化装置]