A miniaturized wall-climbing segment robot inspired by caterpillar locomotion

Bioinspir Biomim. 2017 Jun 15;12(4):046003. doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/aa728c.

Abstract

Caterpillars are very successful soft-bodied climbers that navigate in complex environments. This paper develops a multi-segmented robot climbing on vertical surfaces using dry adhesive pads, inspired by caterpillar locomotion. The miniaturized robot consists of four segments, and each segment uses a solenoid actuator with a permanent magnet plunger. The head and body segments adapt a novel mechanism and Scott-Russell linkages to generate a bi-directional plane motion using one solenoid actuator, resulting to reliable attaching and peeling motions of gecko pads. A tail is also attached at the back of the last segment to avoid falling or exhibiting unstable motion. Gecko-inspired adhesive pads are fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with the area of 20 mm × 10 mm. We have conducted experiments on the locomotion performance of the segment robot climbing vertical surfaces for two types of locomotion, achieving the fast and stable climbing motion.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomimetic Materials*
  • Dimethylpolysiloxanes
  • Equipment Design
  • Larva / physiology*
  • Lepidoptera / physiology*
  • Lizards
  • Locomotion / physiology*
  • Robotics / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Dimethylpolysiloxanes
  • baysilon