Aerodynamic steering of a 10 cm high-speed running robot

Abstract

Turning while running at high speeds remains a difficult task for legged robots, but this capability is crucial for maneuvering quickly in a real-world environment. In this work we present a 10 cm long novel robot, SailRoACH, the first running robot that uses aerodynamic forces to turn. We present a scale analysis of aerodynamic steering, showing this steering method is most effective for small robots. Modeling and simulations were performed, and validated with experiments, that showed the robot is capable of stably turning in a 1.2 m radius at 1.6 ms <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> . We also show that aerodynamic steering is superior for high speed turns at high forward velocity, compared to existing methods. Additionally, aerodynamic steering allows us to introduce a constant yaw disturbance to the robot. This is useful for studying legged locomotion, and is difficult to achieve otherwise.