Tilted Leg Design for a Rapid-Prototyped Low-Voltage Piezoelectric Running Robot

Abstract

This paper describes design and experimental testing of a simple rapid-prototyped, piezoelectrically-actuated legged robot. The 2 cm long by 3 cm wide robot is intended to serve as a large-scale testbed for concepts applicable to millimeter-scale, thin-film piezoelectrically-actuated micro-robots. It achieves high-speed, low-voltage operation through tilted orientation of cantilever-like legs. Tethered locomotion is achieved at 36 mm/s (> 1 body length per second) at as little as 10 V or at speeds as large 400 mmls at 80 V. Electronic loading characteristics of the piezoelectric actuators at low voltage conditions are similar to those of millimeter-scale prototypes. Free dynamics of the robot feet are measured experimentally to gain further insight into cantilever orientation effects on locomotion speed.