Preliminary Results From Vibration-Induced Locomotion of A Compliant Robot

This paper presents the design, development, kinematic, and motion analysis of a novel compliant locomotive robot driven by rotating unbalance. The robot consists of a center mass connected to rigid arms and 4 sliding carts through large deflecting corner filleted flexure hinges. The motion is generated using the undesired vibrations caused by a rotating mass attached to a crank actuated by a DC motor which is housed on the center mass. While the sliders' displacement direction is controlled by the crank rotation, their speed is adjusted either by the motor speed, the eccentricity, or the amount of rotating tip mass. Kinematic analysis of the mechanism is derived using motion analysis in MATLAB Simscape.