Title :
STRIDE: A Highly Maneuverable and Non-Tethered Water Strider Robot
Author :
Song, Yun Seong ; Sitti, Metin
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA
Abstract :
Recently, a few water strider robots that mimic the static and dynamic key characteristics of the insect water striders have been reported in the literature. These robots either lacked mobility or was tethered to an external source of power. Using the recent findings on the supporting legs of these robots creating repulsive surface tension based lift forces, a heavier yet highly maneuverable and non-tethered water strider robot, called STRIDE, is proposed in this paper. STRIDE uses two miniature DC motors and a lithium-polymer battery that are connected to the driving circuit on-board. Optimal leg shape is manufactured by bending 0.33 mm diameter stainless steel wires with a Teflonreg coating. This 6.13 gr non-tethered robot with twelve supporting legs demonstrated a linear motion of 8.7 cm/s and a rotational motion of 0.8 rad/s. STRIDE would have potential applications in continuous water quality monitoring on lakes, dams, and other water sources and in entertainment and education in the near future.
Keywords :
biomimetics; marine systems; mobile robots; position control; robot dynamics; STRIDE robot; Teflon coating; continuous water quality monitoring; leg shape; lift force; lithium-polymer battery; maneuverable robot; miniature DC motor; nontethered water strider robot; repulsive surface tension; robot dynamics; stainless steel wire; water strider insect; Batteries; Circuits; DC motors; Insects; Leg; Legged locomotion; Mobile robots; Shape; Surface tension; Water resources;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation, 2007 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Roma
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0601-3
Electronic_ISBN :
1050-4729
DOI :
10.1109/ROBOT.2007.363112