Tunable Dynamic Walking via Soft Twisted Beam Vibration

Yuhao Jiang, Fuchen Chen, Daniel M. Aukes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism that propagates vibration through soft twisted beams, taking advantage of dynamically-coupled anisotropic stiffness to simplify the actuation of walking robots. Using dynamic simulation and experimental approaches, we show that the coupled stiffness of twisted beams with terrain contact can be controlled to generate a variety of complex trajectories by changing the frequency of the input signal. This work reveals how ground contact influences the system's dynamic behavior, supporting the design of walking robots inspired by this phenomenon. We also show that the proposed twisted beam produces a tunable walking gait from a single vibrational input.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1967-1974
Number of pages8
JournalIEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume8
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Soft sensors and actuators
  • control
  • learning for soft robots
  • modeling
  • soft robot materials and design

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Control and Optimization
  • Artificial Intelligence

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