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Synergy Between Soft Feet and an Active Tail to Enhance the Climbing Ability of a Bio-inspired Climbing Robot

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Abstract

Lizards use the synergy between their feet and tail to climb on slopes and vertical terrains. They use their soft adhesive feet with millions of small hairs to increase their contact area with the terrain surface and press their tails against the terrain to actively maintain stability during climbing. Inspired by this, we propose a bio-inspired climbing robot based on a new approach wherein the synergy between soft feet and an active tail with a soft adhesive tip allows the robot to climb stably on even and uneven terrains at different slope angles. We evaluate and compare the climbing performance of the robot on three different terrains (hard, soft, and fluffy) at different slope angles. Various robot configurations are employed, including those with standard hard feet and soft feet in combination with an active tail—with and without a soft tip. The experimental results show that the robot having soft feet and a tail with the soft tip achieves the best climbing performance on all terrains, with maximum climbing slopes of \(40^{\circ }\), \(45^{\circ }\), and \(50^{\circ }\) on fluffy, soft, and hard terrains, respectively. Its payload capacity depends on the type of terrain and the inclination angle. Moreover, our robot performs multi-terrain transitions (climbing from horizontal to sloped terrains) on three different terrains of a slope. This approach can allow a climbing robot to walk and climb on different terrains, extending the operational range of the robot to areas with complex terrains and slopes, e.g., in inspection, exploration, and construction.

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Data Availability

Statements data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Worasuchard Haomachai for experimental support. This study was supported by the National Key R &D Program of China, Topic 4-NUAA (Grant No. 2020 YFB1313504) to PM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Bio-inspired Structure and Surface Engineering, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Pongsiri Borijindakul, Alihong Ji, Zhendong Dai & Poramate Manoonpong

  2. Bio-inspired Robotics and Neural Engineering Laboratory, School of Information Science and Technology, Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, Rayong, 21210, Thailand

    Tachadol Suthisomboon & Poramate Manoonpong

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  1. Pongsiri Borijindakul
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Correspondence to Poramate Manoonpong.

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Borijindakul, P., Suthisomboon, T., Ji, A. et al. Synergy Between Soft Feet and an Active Tail to Enhance the Climbing Ability of a Bio-inspired Climbing Robot. J Bionic Eng 21, 729–739 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-023-00459-2

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