Design of an Origami Crawling Robot with Reconfigurable Sliding Feet

Fei Fei*, Ying Leng, Sifan Xian, Wende Dong, Kuiying Yin, Guanglie Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
67 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

This paper presents a novel reconfigurable crawling robot based on an origami twisted tower structure. Compared with other origami structures, the twisted tower can achieve extension, contraction, and bending motions as the flexible body parts in robotic designs. The kinematics of a one-layer twisted tower were analyzed with rotation and bending angles. The mechanical properties of the one-layer, two-layer, and four-layer twisted towers were compared with compression experiments. A rope-motor-driven crawling robot was designed to realize forward, backward, left-turning, and right-turning motions. Two types of crawling robot with specific sliding feet were developed to adapt to different ground conditions: one made of rubber, and the other embedded with an electromagnet. The experimental results show that the proposed robots can move at an average forward speed of 0.48 cm/s on a wooden desk, and at 0.52 cm/s forward speed or 0.65 cm/s backward speed on an iron platform.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2520
JournalApplied Sciences (Switzerland)
Volume12
Issue number5
Online published28 Feb 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2022

Research Keywords

  • Anisotropic friction
  • Crawling robot
  • Origami structure
  • Twisted tower

Publisher's Copyright Statement

  • This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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