Dynamic Analysis of Elastic Projecting Robot inspired by Chameleon Tongue

Abstract

Chameleons can project their tongues as far as 1.5 body lengths with accelerations of up to 500 m/s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Inspired by the rapid projection mechanism of the chameleon tongue, this paper carries out research on the biological structure and projection principle of the chameleon tongue, as well as a bionic mechanical device. Firstly, the biological phenomenon of rapid projection and extension is described and an elastic-energy storage/release mechanism is introduced to explain the projection principle. Based on the inspiration of the elastic-energy storage/release mechanism, an elastic projecting robot with multi-layer elastic nested structure is designed. Then the mechanical kinematic and dynamic analysis is proposed. Reasonable parameters which are based on the mechanical structure parameters are set in the Solidworks motion software for the 3-D model simulation of the robot. Finally, the simulation results are analyzed to verify the feasibility and availability of the structural design as well as provide a theoretical basis for the structure optimization of the elastic projecting robot.