Sunday, August 16, 2009

InchBot-VII starts to climb!!

After two weeks of endeavor (sleeping in the lab etc...), I finally convinced the new InchBot to climb up a steep incline. According to the animal locomotion literature, climbing is defined as moving up a incline over 45 degree. Well, currently this InchBot-VII can handle just over 45 degree... so it's a climbing robot for sure!!
This 124mm long robot has two batteries in the head capsule and the rear capsule respectively. So it does not need to be tethered really. It weighed less than 4g if we include the R/C control circuits. It climbs with three sticky pads and several morphological features. The climbing gait was adopted directly from the principles of motion in Manduca caterpillar. Stay tune to my upcoming JEB paper titled: Substrate as skeleton: ground reaction forces from a soft-bodied legged animal for details.
Oh...this robot also got some pink sparkles in the body which made it kind of cute!

Go InchBot!!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the comment Kelley! Wait until I get my robot climbing up the wall and to the ceiling with remote control...

    ReplyDelete
  2. for my friends to get the funny things, I put my translation in Chinese.
    Good job Di! ~~~~

    經過兩個星期的努力(睡在實驗室裡……等),我終於使新InchBot爬上陡峭的斜坡;根據動物運動文獻的定義,攀爬是指超過45度傾斜的運動,那麼現在這個InchBot可處理剛剛超過45度……,所以這肯定是一個爬壁機器人了!

    這124毫米長的軟體機器蟲,在頭尾兩處,分別有膠囊狀的微電池,行動不受束縛;包括無線遙控器,總重不到四克;以一些形態特徵結構體及三個攀爬粘片組成,攀登步態依循〈煙草蛾毛蟲〉蠕動原理來設計。詳細資料請參考我即將發表在JEB的論文《軀體即骨架 ─ 軟體足動物的地面反作用力》。

    太棒了!……這個機器蟲還可以加上一些粉紅色閃爍的設計,會更可愛! 加油啊!InchBot~~~~

    ReplyDelete