Towards a 3g crawling robot through the integration of microrobot technologies

This paper discusses the biomimetic design and assembly of a 3g self-contained crawling robot fabricated through the integrated use of various microrobot technologies. The hexapod structure is designed to move in an alternating tripod gait driven by two piezoelectric actuators connected by sliding plates to two sets of three legs. We present results of both the kinematic and static analyses of the driving mechanism that essentially consists of three slider cranks in series. This analysis confirmed the force differential needed to propel the device. We then review various other microrobot technologies that have been developed including actuator design and fabrication, power and control electronics design, programming via a finite state machine, and the development of bioinspired fiber arrays. These technologies were then successfully integrated into the device. The robot is now functioning and we have already fabricated three iterations of the proposed device. We hope with further design iterations to produce a fully operational model in the near future