MODELLING AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF LIZARDS' FLEXIBLE TRUNKS' EFFECTS ON ENERGETICALLY EFFICIENT LOCOMOTION

Abstract

Although a large number of biological properties have been applied in improving robot design, the effects of flexible trunks on improving the performance of robots are still far from fully understood. In the current study, we aim to investigate the effects of compliant and flexible trunks on the peak-power of a lizard-inspired crawling robot. We first developed a bio-inspired lizard model to guide the design of a crawling robot with a flexible and compliant trunk. This robot is able to mimic the basic crawling gait pattern of lizards. Simulations and experiments were then performed to assess the motor power under various conditions. We found that the lizard-inspired crawling robot with a compliant and flexible trunk exhibited significantly reduced peak-power. More interestingly, we found that the stiffness of the trunk and the motion frequency are two key variables affecting the reduction rate of the peak-power.