Meeting Abstract
The basilisk lizard is a highly agile reptile with the ability to traverse on vast, alternating, unstructured, and complex terrains (i.e. sand, mud, and water). This makes them a great model organism for pursuing potential solutions for robotic locomotion on such terrains. Through our animal experiments of the brown basilisk lizard on granular media, it was discovered that the animal’s body velocity increased as the sand’s saturation level increased from 0% to 30%. To interpret the increased body velocity, the limb frequency and stride length of the animal were evaluated. It was observed that while limb frequency remained relatively consistent, the stride length increased as the saturation increased from 0% to 30%. To systematically evaluate the influence of limb frequency and stride length on body velocity, the BasiliskBot was designed and tested upon the same medium, against 0%, 15%, and 30% saturated sand. Limb frequency was adjusted by altering the motor speed, and stride length was modified through the utilization of different whegs with varying number of spokes. As the saturation increased from 0% to 30%, so did the stride length and stride frequency and thus the body velocity. In addition, increasing the stride frequency and saturation resulted in decreasing the robot’s cost of transport. The hierarchical concepts observed and learnt through animal and robotic experiments can be used towards designing, modeling and developing robotic systems with the capability to traverse over complex and unstructured terrains.
