Cockroach Series Robots
The following are links to our three ONR-funded hexapod projects. Robot I and Robot II were our first two biologically inspired projects. Robot III is our design in progress for a hexapod based on the cockroach.
Robot IV will be actuated by Braided Pneumatic Actuators, also known as McKibben Artifical Muscles. Therefore, a test stand was built to learn how to control with these ingenious actuators. The robotic leg was capable of operating 94% passively and provided stable and sensible forward walking motion.
Robot V is another cockroach inspired robot, following in many ways after Robots III and IV.
In collaboration with the Zill Laboratory at the Marshall University School of Medicine, the following projects are being executed at the Biorobotics Laboratory at Case Western Reserve University.
The kinematically correct model of the front leg of a Blaberus cockroach described in the Arthropod modeling section has a femur-tibia joint that has been actuated using actual EMG recordings from the extensor and flexor muscles of the Blaberus cockroach. Below is a video of the leg being actuated with these signals, with the raw EMG signal overlaid.
We collaborated with K2T, Inc. (located in Duquesne, PA) on their mine
removal walking robot.
For more information on our ONR projects please also see our ONR Productivity Report.
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