Self-Engaging Spined Gripper with Dynamic Penetration and Release for Steep Jumps
Jessica S. Lee, Mark Plecnik, Je-Han Yang, Ronald S. Fearing
Abstract
Due to high impact forces and low duty cycles, monopedal jumping robots are particularly susceptible to failure from a slipping foot. Spines provide a solution to reduce slip, but there has been little research on how to effectively engage them into a surface with a dynamic jumping robot. Previous robots utilizing spines operate in different regimes of surface approach speed and cycle time. For a penetrable substrate, spines must be directed into the surface at suitable holding angles, then extracted before the foot leaves the ground. We accomplished this by designing a gripper mechanism for the robot Salto that pushes in angled spines along their length and is kinematically constrained to engage/disengage with leg crouch/extension. The resulting mechanism introduces no new actuators, enables jumping on penetrable inclines up to 60°, and enables static adhesion to hold 7.5 times the robot's weight from a ceiling.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2018_selfengagingspin,
title = {Self-Engaging Spined Gripper with Dynamic Penetration and Release for Steep Jumps},
author = {Jessica S. Lee and Mark Plecnik and Je-Han Yang and Ronald S. Fearing},
booktitle = {ICRA 2018},
year = {2018}
}