An Adaptive Walking Robot With Reconfigurable Mechanisms Using Shape Morphing Joints

In nature, animals or insects can leverage the same body parts for different functions (e.g., a frog can use its legs to walk, jump, and swim). But robots, especially miniature ones, can normally perform a single task with a fixed mechanical design. In this letter, we propose a novel strategy to enable reconfigurable robots by embedding shape morphing into a mechanism through shape morphing joints, which can be either soft for a compliant joint or rigid for a structure. In this case, a mechanism can achieve multiple trajectories without altering the mechanical design. We numerically analyze the reconfiguration strategy and apply it to a leg mechanism capable of generating different foot trajectories. With those trajectories, we implement the mechanism in a walking robot to demonstrate different functions. The proposed strategy can be leveraged to reconfigure other mechanisms to enable adaptive robots that can change their sizes, shapes, or functionalities to fulfill multiple tasks in different environments.