Session: MR-07-02

Paper Number: 143646

143646 - Improving Climbing Performance Using Passive Tail in Lizard-Inspired Robot 

Lizards are excellent climbers and effectively utilize their tail to actively counter the destabilizing pitching moment during climbing. Taking inspiration from the use of a tail for imparting stability we designed a compliant passive tail to improve the climbing performance of a wall climbing lizard-inspired robot developed in the past by our research group \cite{ak2023bio, nishad2022development}. This paper presents the incorporation of the spring-actuated tail into climbing robots to improve their stability and climbing capabilities. A spring-actuated tail helps in regaining the stability during momentary adhesive failure making the robot more reliable.  However, there is no external support for the tail to avoid slipping during momentary adhesive failure. To improve the climbing performance and reduce the chances of failure, A flexible pressure-sensitive adhesive tip has been incorporated on the compliant passive tail to enhance the climbing stability. The climbing capabilities of the proposed design are compared with two different conditions: a robot with and without a tail under two different terrains: hard(Acrylic sheet) and soft(Fitness mat). The experimental results demonstrate that the robot equipped with a tail featuring a flexible adhesive tip achieves the best climbing performance on hard terrains with a maximum slope of 65°, while a tail lacking a flexible adhesive tip achieves superior climbing performance on soft terrains with a maximum slope of 40°. This approach enables a climbing robot to navigate and ascend various terrains, thereby expanding its operational capabilities to encompass areas with different terrains. This versatility is especially valuable in tasks such as inspection, exploration, and construction.

Presenting Author: Atul Thakur Indian Institute of Technology Patna

Presenting Author Biography: Atul Thakur is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Patna. His research interest is broadly in the area of robotics and automation. He has been actively engaged in the research involving the design, motion planning, and control of bio-inspired robots, application of robotics in the area of solid waste management, and selective micromanipulation of biological cells using magnetic microrobots.
He received a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, Master of Technology (M.Tech.) degree in manufacturing engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree in production engineering from the University of Mumbai. Atul is a recipient of the 2013 Best Dissertation Award from ASME-CIE Division. He received Elsevier Journal of Computer-Aided Design 2012 most cited paper award. He is also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) since 2009 and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 2011.

Authors:

Kodidasu Pranav IIT Patna
Mani Sankar Kadali Indian Institute of Technology Patna
Atul Thakur Indian Institute of Technology Patna