Research on Motion Control of Bionic Sucker Inchworm Robot Based on MPC

Inchworm robots are typical insect bionic robots that are able to move in narrow space such as pipelines, which expand the range of robot application. In this paper, the motion control method of the bionic sucker inchworm robot (BSIR) based on MPC is proposed, which enables the inchworm robot to achieve “
$\Omega $
” motion gait and steering gait on vertical and horizontal planes of different materials. Firstly, the negative pressure suction cup imitating octopus tentacles (NPSC-IOT) is designed and the sucker control model is proposed. Under negative pressure control, the adsorption pressure of the sucker is adjusted to satisfy the needs of the trunk structure movement. Secondly, the bionic sucker controller based on MPC is designed, and the closed-loop control is realized by using the data feedback from the air pressure sensor. Thirdly, BSIR with installed NPSC-IOT as the robot’s tentacles is developed. Finally, the experiment verifies the feasibility of the bionic sucker controller based on MPC to control BSIR to achieve ‘
$\Omega $
’ motion gait and steering gait on vertical and horizontal planes of different materials. The experimental results show that BSIR is able to achieve “
$\Omega $
” gait and turning gait on vertical and horizontal surfaces of glass, tiles, white gray walls, and metal.