Bio-inspired salamander robot leg design for uneven terrains

Abstract

Ideally, search and rescue operations after a natural disaster has struck, should be performed by search and rescue robots. As natural disasters strike in very different environments and terrains, all-terrain robots are the best choice. By taking inspiration from salamanders, an amphibian, which can both swim and walk, we propose a new leg mechanism for uneven terrains. The mechanism is fabricated using commercial 3D printers, making them cheap, and illustrating how accessible 3D printers can be used for mechanism design. The feasibility of our approach is tested in practice.