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Heads or Tails? Cranio-Caudal Mass Distribution for Robust Locomotion with Biorobotic Appendages Composed of 3D-Printed Soft Materials

  • Robert SiddallEmail author
  • Fabian Schwab
  • Jenny Michel
  • James Weaver
  • Ardian Jusufi
Conference paper
First Online:
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 11556)

Abstract

The addition of external mass onto an organism can be used to examine the salient features of inherent locomotion dynamics. In this biorobotics study general principles of systems in motion are explored experimentally to gain insight on observed biodiversity in body plans and prevalent cranio-caudal mass distributions. Head and tail mass can make up approximately 20% of total body mass in lizards. To focus on the effect of differential loading of the ‘head’ and the ‘tail’ we designed an experiment using weights of 10% total body mass connected to the front and rear at varying distances to simulate biological mass distribution. Additive manufacturing techniques with compliant materials were utilized to make the biomimetic limbs. Obstacle traversal performance was evaluated over 126 trials in a variety of Moment of Inertia (MOI) configurations, recording pitch angles. Results showed that a forward-biased MOI appears useful for regaining contact in the front wheels during obstacle negotiation, while large passive tails can have a destabilising effect in some configurations. In our robophysical model, we explore both wheeled and legged locomotion (‘whegs’), and additionally examine damping the motion of the chassis by utilizing soft non-pneumatic tires (‘tweels’) which reduce body oscillations that arise from locomotion on irregular terrain.

Keywords

Bioinspired robot Soft robotics Additive manufacturing 
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Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Robert Siddall
    • 1
    Email author
  • Fabian Schwab
    • 2
  • Jenny Michel
    • 1
    • 4
  • James Weaver
    • 2
    • 3
  • Ardian Jusufi
    • 1
  1. 1.Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsStuttgartGermany
  2. 2.Wyss Institute for Biologically-Inspired EngineeringHarvard UniversityCambridgeUSA
  3. 3.School of Engineering and Applied SciencesHarvard UniversityCambridgeUSA
  4. 4.University of HohenheimStuttgartGermany

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