Gecko adhesion based sea star crawler robot

Sampada Acharya; Peter Roberts; Tejas Rane; Raghav Singhal; Peize Hong; Viraj Ranade; Carmel Majidi; Victoria Webster-Wood; B. Reeja-Jayan

doi:10.3389/frobt.2023.1209202

Frontiers in Robotics and AI (Jul 2023)

Affiliations

Sampada Acharya: Far-from-equilibrium Materials Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Peter Roberts: Soft Machines Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Tejas Rane: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Raghav Singhal: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Peize Hong: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Viraj Ranade: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Carmel Majidi: Soft Machines Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Victoria Webster-Wood: The CMU B.O.R.G, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
B. Reeja-Jayan: Far-from-equilibrium Materials Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1209202
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 10

Abstract

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Over the years, efforts in bioinspired soft robotics have led to mobile systems that emulate features of natural animal locomotion. This includes combining mechanisms from multiple organisms to further improve movement. In this work, we seek to improve locomotion in soft, amphibious robots by combining two independent mechanisms: sea star locomotion gait and gecko adhesion. Specifically, we present a sea star-inspired robot with a gecko-inspired adhesive surface that is able to crawl on a variety of surfaces. It is composed of soft and stretchable elastomer and has five limbs that are powered with pneumatic actuation. The gecko-inspired adhesion provides additional grip on wet and dry surfaces, thus enabling the robot to climb on 25° slopes and hold on statically to 51° slopes.

Published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI

ISSN: 2296-9144 (Online)
Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Technology: Mechanical engineering and machinery; Science: Mathematics: Instruments and machines: Electronic computers. Computer science
Website: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai

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