Centipede robot for uneven terrain exploration: Design and experiment of the flexible biomimetic robot mechanism

Abstract

Recently, various robots that are inspired by creatures in nature are developed for uneven terrain exploration. These robots are commonly referred as bio-inspired or biomimetic robot. Most biomimetic robot mechanisms have focused on studying the gait or leg mechanism of the target creature. However, unlike the real creatures, the robot has a disadvantage of contact losses between legs and ground due to the rigid body structure. Moreover, this rigid body structure makes the robot difficult to move uneven terrains. In this paper, biomimetic robot mechanism which is inspired by the flexible body and ripple gait motion of the centipede is proposed to tackle this problem. The prototype of the robot is experimented to assess its locomotion performance over various obstacles.