1. NEED STATEMENT - e-division-2019-2020-odd/Repo-06 GitHub Wiki

Need statement:

A School is interested to showcase in its biology lab how different animals, and insects walk. They desire that there must be at least 6-8 different walking bots so that the children can learn about diversity in the ways the bones are arranged for walking. Additionally, the children must also be able to interact with the bots and control their movements. Due to space constraints in the lab, the bots must be as small as possible.

INTRODUCTION

WALKING BOT-

Legged robots are a type of mobile robot, which use articulated limbs, such as leg mechanisms, to provide locomotion. They are more versatile than wheeled robots and can traverse many different terrains, though these advantages require increased complexity and power consumption. Legged robots often imitate legged animals, such as humans or insects, in an example of biomimicry.

Our attempts to mimic animal motion have resulted in many technological advances that have revolutionized how manmade machines move through air, in water, and over land. Despite numerous achievements, engineers and scientists have yet to closely replicate the grace and fluidity of animal movement.

This suggests the biological world still has much in the way of suggestions for how to build, design, and program robotic systems whose locomotive capabilities will far outpace what is possible today. In addition to novel designs and methods for constructing robot morphologies, biology also inspires us to design improved software to enable robots to better interact with complex environments.

The graceful and agile movements of animals are difficult to analyze and emulate because locomotion is the result of a complex interplay of many components: the central and peripheral nervous systems, the musculoskeletal system, and the environment. The goals of biorobotics are to take inspiration from biological principles to design robots that match the agility of animals, and to use robots as scientific tools to investigate animal adaptive behavior, and also used as physical models.

As a first approximation, animal locomotion is based on two key principles: the generation of periodic movements using muscles (which is quite different from the rotational movement of electromagnetic motors), and the generation of asymmetries in the interaction forces with the environment, such that periodic movements of muscles are transformed into a forward acceleration (as opposed to back-and-forth movements in place)

Manipulator performance is defined as:

Reach (size of workspace), and dexterity (angular displacement of individual joints).
Payload (weight that can be carried).
Quickness (how fast it can move).
Duty-cycle (how fast it can repeat motions without breaking down).

(A) RoboTuna (35). (B) Lamprey robot (39). (C) Salamandra robotica (19, 67). (D) Sandfish lizard robot (6). (E) StickyBot (56). (F) RHex (22, 54). (G) MIT Cheetah robot (8). (H) CheetahCub (10). (I) Cornell biped (74). (J) Miniature flapping wing robot (46). (K) Powered ankle–foot prosthesis controlled by a neuromuscular model (20). Permissions: (A) M. Triantafyllou; (B) IOP Publishing; (C, E, G, K) IEEE; (D) The Royal Society; (F, I, J) AAAS; (H) A. Sproewitz.

Solution

To achieve statically stable walking a robot must have a minimum number of four legs, because during walking at least one leg is in the air. Statically stable walking means that all robots' motion can be stopped at every moment in the gait cycle without overturning.