Workspace and passable environment analyse of a underactuated inchworm-like micro-robot

An underactuated inchworm-like micro-robot with 3 DOFs is presented in this paper. The robot can walk on any surface as an inchworm with three different locomotion forms such as crawling, overturn and rotation when an inchworm-like biped mechanical structure is selected. And the underactuated structure is applied to this micro-robot to achieve the aim of small size and minimal weight. Thus the workspace and passable environment analyses become important for motion planning and control. This paper briefly discusses the mechanical structure and driving mechanism of this micro-robot. The kinematics model is then developed, and its workspace and passable environment is analyzed in detail. Analysis shows that this robot can transit between different surfaces with large range of angle. Therefore this micro-robot is characterized by agile movement and adaptability of complex environment.