Toward a Gecko-Inspired, Climbing Soft Robot

Abstract

In this paper, we present a gecko-inspired soft robot that is able to climb inclined, flat surfaces. By changing the design of the previous version, the energy consumption of the robot could be reduced, and at the same time, its ability to climb and its speed of movement could be increased. As a result, the new prototype consumes only about a third of the energy of the previous version and manages to climb slopes of up to 84 •. In the horizontal plane, its velocity could be increased from 2 to 6 cm/s. We also provide a detailed analysis of the robot's straight gait.

A Gait Pattern Generator for Closed-Loop Position Control of a Soft Walking Robot

“…The aim of this work was position control of the gecko-inspired soft robot from Schiller et al ( 2019 ) in Cartesian space. The solution to this complex task is based on two major simplifications: (i) the formulation of a gait law to reduce the state space of the robot from nine to two dimensions and (ii) the approximation of the direct kinematics to allow a fast evaluation.…”

“…However, the same principles are also valid for mobile soft robots. Most mobile soft robots, such as in Shepherd et al ( 2011 ), Godage et al ( 2012 ), Tolley et al ( 2014 ), Qin et al ( 2019 ), and Schiller et al ( 2019 ), are feed forward-controlled with predefined gait patterns. In order to enable such robots to move autonomously even in unknown terrain, a locomotion controller is needed that can generate any gait path.…”

“…Hence, for locomotion control of a robotic platform, a robot-specific motion strategy must be known. This paper analytically derives a robot-specific mapping of desired motion (forward and rotational speed) to joint coordinates for the gecko-inspired robot from Schiller et al ( 2019 ), which is briefly described in section 2. The mapping function is referred to as “gait law” and is presented in section 3.…”

Manufacturing, Control, and Performance Evaluation of a Gecko-Inspired Soft Robot

“…The goal of this protocol is to provide a method to manufacture, control, and evaluate the performance of a gecko-inspired, climbing soft robot 9 . Its design is based on the use of fast pneunet soft bending actuators 10 made of elastomer.…”

“…The literature offers a wide range of different designs of soft actuators 11 and suitable materials 12 . The presented manufacturing method is similar to existing methods 13 but includes some modifications that result in increased repeatability and robustness, at least in the case of the soft climbing robot 9 . The method is valid for fast pneunet bending actuators in general and might, therefore, be interesting for newcomers to the field of actuator manufacturing.…”