蜈蚣水面游泳及其机器人物理模型

中文摘要 AI 辅助

细长多足机器人利用协调的身体波和分布式的腿在杂乱的地面环境中移动。然而，由于为独立腿部控制安装执行器可能需要笨重的身体节段，其非流线型的身体和肢体结构使其难以实现与陆地运动性能相当的水面游泳能力。在水面上，我们发现所测试的多足机器人意外地向后移动：其身体波的传播方向与位移方向相同，即采用直接波进行游泳。我们在蜈蚣（Lithobius forficatus）中也观察到了类似行为，它通过直接身体波和周期性腿部运动进行游泳。为了研究分布式腿部如何促进直接波游泳，我们分析了动物运动学，并开发了一个多足机器人物理模型，该模型允许独立改变腿部形态和刚度、身体波方向和腿部协调方式。机器人物理实验表明，在测试条件下，直接身体波能产生一致的前向运动，且游泳性能取决于身体-腿部协调。此外，在匹配的反相驱动下，与刚性腿相比，方向性柔顺腿将位移从每周期约0.08体长增加到0.21体长。这些发现阐明了分布式附肢如何促进水面游泳，并为将多足野外机器人从陆地运动扩展到水生环境建立了步态和形态设计原则。

英文摘要

Elongate multi-legged robots use coordinated body waves and distributed legs to move through cluttered terrestrial environments. However, as housing actuators for independent leg control can require bulky body segments, their non-streamlined body and limb structure makes it difficult to achieve swimming capability comparable to their terrestrial locomotor performance. At the water surface, we found that the multi-legged robots we tested unexpectedly moved backward: their body waves traveled in the same direction as their displacement, i.e., swimming with a direct wave. We found similar behavior in the centipede \textit{Lithobius forficatus}, which swims with a direct body wave and periodic leg movement. To study how distributed legs contribute to direct-wave swimming, we analyze animal kinematics and develop a multi-legged robophysical model that allows independent variation of leg morphology and stiffness, body-wave direction, and leg coordination. Robophysical experiments show that direct body waves produce consistent forward motion under the tested conditions and that swimming performance depends on body--leg coordination. Additionally, directionally compliant legs increase displacement from approximately 0.08 to 0.21 body lengths per cycle relative to rigid legs under matched anti-phase actuation. These findings clarify how distributed appendages contribute to surface swimming and establish gait and morphology design principles for extending multi-legged field robots from terrestrial locomotion into aquatic environments.

发表机构

• Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）

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