Mechanical principles of dynamic terrestrial self-righting using wings

@article{Li2017MechanicalPO,
  title={Mechanical principles of dynamic terrestrial self-righting using wings},
  author={Chen Li and Chad C. Kessens and Ronald S. Fearing and Robert J. Full},
  journal={Advanced Robotics},
  year={2017},
  volume={31},
  pages={881 - 900}
}
Graphical Abstract Abstract Terrestrial animals and robots are susceptible to flipping-over during rapid locomotion in complex terrains. However, small robots are less capable of self-righting from an upside-down orientation compared to small animals like insects. Inspired by the winged discoid cockroach, we designed a new robot that opens its wings to self-right by pushing against the ground. We used this robot to systematically test how self-righting performance depends on wing opening… 
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22 Citations
Background Citations
12
Methods Citations
4

22 Citations

Coordinated Appendages Accumulate More Energy to Self-Right on the Ground

A template to model the complex hybrid dynamics resulting from discontinuous contact and actuation revealed that wing-leg coordination strongly affects self-righting outcome by changing mechanical energy budget, and practical use of the template was demonstrated for predicting a new control strategy to further increase self- righting performance and informing robot design.

Propelling and perturbing appendages together facilitate strenuous ground self-righting

A potential energy landscape model revealed that, although wing opening did not generate sufficient kinetic energy to overcome the high pitch potential energy barrier to somersault, it reduced the barrier for rolling, facilitating the small kinetic energy from leg flailing to probabilistically overcome it to self-right.

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Inspired by beetles, this work proposes a robust and elegant solution where a fixed-wing drone is retrofit with a set of additional wings akin to beetles shell structured wings called elytra that provides additional lift during flight to mitigate their structural weight while also being able to self-right the MAV when it has been flipped over.

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This study studied how two body shapes interacting with obstacles affect turning and pitching motions of an open-loop multi-legged robot and cockroaches during dynamic locomotion and developed a quasi-static potential energy landscape model to explain the dependence ofynamic locomotion on body shape.

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A cockroach-inspired legged robot that was capable of overcoming all locomotor challenges with high performance and success rate and features an active tail pointed downward and tapping against the ground helps roll the body into the gap and break frictional and interlocking contact.

Randomness in appendage coordination facilitates strenuous ground self-righting

This study used robotic simulation modeling of strenuous, leg-assisted, winged ground self-righting observed in cockroaches to demonstrate that randomness helps destabilize locomotor systems from being trapped in undesired metastable states, a situation common in strenuous locomotion.

Tail-Augmented Self-Righting and Turning of a Dynamic Legged Millirobot

LoadRoACH is introduced, a 54.8 g palm-sized folded legged robot that carries a protective shell and an active tail that enables it to survive high drops, rapidly self-right, and turn with enhanced maneuverability in real-world applications.

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A Comparative study of cockroach self-righting reveals performance advantages of using rotational kinetic energy to overcome the potential energy barrier and rolling more to lower it while maintaining diverse strategies for ground-based self- righting.

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This paper analyzes and implements two novel turning strategies for underactuated legged robots that leverage contact of an active tail against terrain and provides comparable turning maneuverability to differential drive turning gaits on carpet and gravel surfaces.

Coronal Plane Spine Twisting Composes Shape To Adjust the Energy Landscape for Grounded Reorientation

This paper explores the quasistatic terrestrial self-righting mechanics of a model system with coronal plane spine twisting (CPST), reducing the required righting torque by up to an order of magnitude depending on constituent shapes and suggesting further benefits of CPST achievable by coordinating kinetic as well as potential energy.

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