Paper:ICM09-caterpillar

Houxiang Zhang, Juan González-Gómez, Jianwei Zhang. "A New Application of Modular Robots on Analysis of Caterpillar-like Locomotion". Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics, Malaga, Spain, 14-17 April

Abstract

Abstract— This paper presents the application of developing and employing modular robots for caterpillar-like locomotion research. Firstly an investigation on locomotion kinematics adopted by natural caterpillars is given systematically. From kinematics viewpoint, the caterpillar can be considered as a structure with pitching moving joints and attachment units in total. The kinematics locomotion model can be built with three robotic modules Cube-M in pitching-pitching connections, which is designed by us recently. We concentrate on using flexible and cheap modular robotic system for bio-inspired research and educational purposes in our international consortium. Various bio-inspired locomotion is investigated thoroughly, such as most efficient movement for power consumption, the fastest movement gaits. In the end a conclusion is given and future work is outlined.

Authors

Houxiang Zhang, Juan González-Gómez, JianWei Zhang
Oral presentation: Juan Gonzalez-Gomez

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ICM2009-caterpillar.pdf	Paper (PDF)
ICM2009-caterpillar.odt	Paper in Openoffice format (ODT)
ICM09-caterpillar-slides.pdf	Slides, in PDF
ICM09-caterpillar.odp	Slides, in Openoffice format (ODP)

Video

Experimental results

Step vs Amplitude (click to enlarge)	Step vs Phase Difference (click to enlarge)
Power vs Amplitude (click to enlarge)	Power vs Phase Difference (click to enlarge)
Power to Step ratio vs Amplitude (click to enlarge)	Power to Step ratio (zoom) vs Amplitude (click to enlarge)