Meeting Abstract
Studies on insects and spiders have shown that in cluttered environments or those having a low probability of foot contact, collapsible leg spines can increase performance. Anisotropic properties of spines permit engagement of complex terrain during thrust, but are easily removed during swing because they collapse toward the leg. We used this architectural advantage as biological inspiration for increasing the performance of a legged robot. We developed a simple way to manufacture collapsible spines for a legged robot and used the collapsible spines to increase the robot’s running and climbing ability. Our leg spines were manufactured using fiberglass with skewed triangle cuts that project outward naturally when attached to the curved robot leg. When engaged, spines could support five times the robot’s body weight (1.72 N), but could be released with only one-third body weight of force, a 15:1 ratio between engagement and releasing force. We applied our manufactured, collapsible spines to a six-legged, insect-inspired robot named VelociRoACH (33g), one of the fastest terrestrial robots relative to its size, but with very limited ability to negotiate sloped terrain. Leg spines approximately doubled the slope climbed (15 to 30°) and the speed on a 20° slope (5.5±1.4 to 8.1±0.7 cm/s). Development of manufacturing techniques for these collapsible spines can provide future designs for the next generation of robots. Moreover, manufactured spines can serve as physical models to test hypothesis for animals that take advantage of collapsible spines and scales, not only on their legs, but also on their ventral surface and tail.
