Initial Development of a Novel Amphibious Robot with Transformable Fin-Leg Composite Propulsion Mechanisms

Abstract

Abstract:

Amphibious robots are very attractive for their broad applications in resource exploration, disaster rescue, and recon-naissance. However, it is very challenging to develop the robots for their complex, amphibious working environments. In the complex amphibious environment, amphibious robots should possess multi-capabilities to walk on rough ground, maneuver underwater, and pass through transitional zones such as sandy and muddy terrain. These capabilities require a high-performance propulsion mechanism for the robots. To tackle a complex task, a novel amphibious robot (AmphiHex-I) with,transformable fin-leg composite propulsion mechanisms is developed. With the fin-leg composite propulsions, AmphiHex-I can walk on rough and soft substrates and swim in water with many maneuvers. This paper presents the structural design of the transformable fin-leg propulsion mechanism and its driving module. A hybrid model is used to explore the dynamics between the trans-formable legs and transitional environment such as granular medium. The locomotion performances of legs with various ellip-tical shapes are analyzed, which is verified by the coincidence between the model predictions and the simulation results. Further, an orthogonal experiment is conducted to study the locomotion performance of a two-legged platform walking with an asyn-chronous gait in the sandy and muddy terrain. Finally, initial experiments of AmphiHex-I walking on various lands and swimming in water are implemented. These results verify that the transformable fin-leg mechanisms enable the amphibious robot to pass through a complex, amphibious working environment.

Key words: amphibious robot, transformable fin-leg, composite propulsion mechanism, amphibious environment

Shiwu Zhang, Xu Liang, Lichao Xu, Min Xu. Initial Development of a Novel Amphibious Robot with Transformable Fin-Leg Composite Propulsion Mechanisms[J].J4, 2013, 10(4): 434-445.

References

[1] Hirose S, Yamada H. Snake-Like robots machine design of biologically inspired robots. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 2009, 16, 88–98.

[2] Matsuo T, Yokoyama T, Ueno D, Ishii K. Biomimetic mo-tion control system based on a CPG for an amphibious multi-link mobile robot. Journal of Bionic Engineering, 2008, 5, 91–97.

[3]  Wright C, Buchan A, Brown B, Geist J, Schwerin M, Rollinson D, Tesch M, Choset H. Design and architecture of the unified modular snake robot. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Saint Paul, USA, 2012, 4347–4354.

[4]  Boxerbaum A S, Werk P, Quinn R D, Vaidyanathan R. De-sign of an autonomous amphibious robot for surf zone op-eration: Part I-Mechanical design for multi-mode mobility. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Ad-vanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Monterey, California, USA, 2005, 1459–1464.

[5]  Ijspeert A J, Crespi A, Ryczko D, Cabelguen J M. From swimming to walking with a salamander robot driven by a spinal cord model. Science, 2007, 315, 1416–1420.

[6] Crespi A, Ijspeert A J. Online optimization of swimming and crawling in an amphibious snake robot. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2008, 24, 75–87.

[7] Yu J, Ding R, Yang Q, Tan M, Wang W, Zhang J. On a bio-inspired amphibious robot capable of multimodal mo-tion. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 2012, 17, 847–856.

[8] Saranli U, Buehler M, Koditschek D E. Design, modeling and preliminary control of a compliant hexapod robot. Pro-ceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, San Francisco, California, USA, 2000, 2589–2596.

[9] Saranli U, Buehler M, Koditschek D E. RHex: A simple and highly mobile hexapod robot. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2001, 20, 616–631.

[10] Prahacs C, Saunders A, Smith M, McMordie D, Buehler M. Towards legged amphibious mobile robotics. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association, 2004.

[11] Dudek G, Giguere P, Prahacs C, Saunderson S, Sattar J, Torres-Mendez L A, Jenkin M, German A, Hogue A, Ripsman A, Zacher J, Milios E, Liu H, Zhang P, Buehler M, Georgiades C. AQUA: An amphibious autonomous robot. Computer, 2007, 40, 46–53.

[12] AQUA2 amphibious robot is super cute and fast, less an-noying than most pets because it has no head,
[2010-07-08], http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/08/aqua2-amphibious-robot-is-super-cute-and-fast-less-annoying-tha/

[13] Kaznov V, Seeman M. Outdoor navigation with a spherical amphibious robot. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Taipei, Tai-wan, 2010, 5113–5118.

[14] Carlson A, Papanikolopoulos N. Aquapod: Prototype design of an amphibious tumbling robot. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Shanghai, China, 2011, 4589–4594.

[15] Greiner H, Shectman A, Won C, Elsley R, Beith P. Autonomous legged underwater vehicles for near land warfare. Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Autono-mous Underwater Vehicle Technology, Monterey, Califor-nia, USA, 1996, 41–48.

[16] Ayers J. Underwater walking. Arthropod Structure & De-velopment, 2004, 33, 347–360.

[17] Hobson B W, Kemp M, Moody R, Pell C A, Vosburgh F. Amphibious Robot Devices and Related Methods, U.S. Pat-ent, No. 6974356, 2005.

[18] Wang C, Xie G, Yin X, Li L, Wang L. CPG-based locomo-tion control of a quadruped amphibious robot. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelli-gent Mechatronics, Kachsiung, Taiwan, 2012, 1–6.

[19] Sun Y, Ma S. ePaddle mechanism: Towards the develop-ment of a versatile amphibious locomotion mechanism. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intel-ligent Robots and Systems, California, USA, 2011, 5035–5040.

[20] Barrett D S, Triantafyllou M S, Yue D K P, Grosenbaugh M A, Wolfgang M J. Drag reduction in fish-like locomotion. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 1999, 392, 183–212.

[21] Liao J C, Beal D N, Lauder G V, Triantafyllou M S. Fish exploiting vortices decrease muscle activity. Science, 2003, 302, 1566–1569.

[22] Yan Q, Han Z, Zhang S, Yang J. Parametric research of experiments on a carangiform robotic fish. Journal of Bionic Engineering, 2008, 5, 95–101.

[23] Lejeune T M, Willems P A, Heglund N C. Mechanics and energetics of human locomotion on sand. Journal of Ex-perimental Biology, 1998, 201, 2071–2080.

[24] Liang X, Xu M, Xu L, Liu P, Ren X, Kong Z, Yang J, Zhang S. The AmphiHex: A novel amphibious robot with trans-formable leg-flipper composite propulsion mechanism. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intel-ligent Robots and Systems, Algarve, Portugal, 2012, 3667–3672.

[25]  Li C, Rahn C D. Design of continuous backbone, ca-ble-driven robots. Journal of Mechanical Design, 2002, 124, 265–271.

[26]  Guglielmino E, Tsagarakis N, and Caldwell D G. An octo-pus anatomy-inspired robotic arm. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, 2010, 3091–3096.

[27]  Jaeger H M, Nagel S R, Behringer R P. Granular solids, liquids, and gases. Reviews of Modern Physics, 1996, 68, 1259–1273.

[28]  Kadanoff L P. Built upon sand: Theoretical ideas inspired by granular flows. Reviews of Modern Physics, 1999, 71, 435–444.

[29]  Xu L, Liang X, Xu M, Zhang S. Interplay of theory and experiment in analysis of the advantage of the novel semi-elliptical leg moving on loose soil. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Wollongong, Australia, 2013, 26–31.

[30]  Maladen R D, Ding Y, Umbanhowar P B, Kamor A, Goldman D I. Mechanical models of sandfish locomotion reveal principles of high performance subsurface sand-swimming. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2011, 8, 1332–1345.

[31]  Maladen R D, Ding Y, Li C, Goldman D I. Undulatory swimming in sand: Subsurface locomotion of the sandfish lizard. Science, 2009, 325, 314–318.

[32]  Maladen R D, Ding Y, Umbanhowar P B, Goldman D I. Undulatory swimming in sand: Experimental and simulation studies of a robotic sandfish. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2011, 30, 793–805.

[33]  Albert R, Pfeifer M, Barabási A L, Schiffer P. Slow drag in a granular medium. Physical Review Letters, 1999, 82, 205–208.

[34]  Li C, Zhang T, Goldman D I. A terradynamics of legged locomotion on granular media. Science, 2013, 339, 1408–1412.

[35]  Slatton A, Ding Y, Umbanhowar P B, Goldman D I, Haynes G C, Komsuoglu H, Koditschek D E. Integrating a hierarchy of simulation tools for legged robot locomotion. Depart-mental Papers (ESE), 2008, 474–479.

[36]  Itasca Consulting Group Inc. PFC2D User’s Manual, 3rd ed, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 1999.

[37]  Iagnemma K, Kang S, Shibly H, Dubowsky S. Online terrain parameter estimation for wheeled mobile robots with ap-plication to planetary rovers. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2004, 20, 921–927.

[38]  Ren X, Liang X, Kong Z, Xu M, Xu R, Zhang S. An ex-perimental study on the locomotion performance of ellipti-cal-curve leg in muddy terrain. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mecha-tronics, Wollongong, Australia, 2013, 518–523.

[39]  Liu W. Experimental Design, Tsinghua University Press, Beijing, China, 2005.

[40]  Li C, Umbanhowar P B, Komsuoglu H, Koditschek D E, Goldman D I. Sensitive dependence of the motion of a legged robot on granular media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009, 106, 3029–3034.

[41]  Johnson A M, Hale M T, Haynes G C, Koditschek D E. Autonomous legged hill and stairwell ascent. Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics, Tokyo, Japan, 2011, 134–142.

Quick Search Adv. Search