模仿弹涂鱼尾巴摆动，让机器人在沙地泥地爬得更快更省力。
Bio-inspired tail oscillation enables robot fast crawling on deformable granular terrains
- 仿生尾巴摆动可主动松动颗粒地形，降低阻力。
- 实验显示速度提升67%，身体阻力减少46%。
- 适合在沙地、泥地等松软地形作业的机器人设计。
沙地、泥地等可变形地形对陆地机器人构成严峻挑战，源于复杂的机器人-地形相互作用。受弹涂鱼启发，这种两栖动物能协同调节尾部形态与运动以适应此类环境，我们研究了尾部设计与控制如何协同增强鳍状驱动在颗粒介质上的运动性能。基于仿生弹涂鱼的机器人，实验对比了静止与主动摆动尾部两种配置的表现。结果显示，尾部摆动使机器人速度提升67%，身体阻力降低46%。剪切力测量表明，该提升源于尾部摆动使底质流体化，从而减小阻力。此外，尾部形态显著影响摆动策略：水平投影面积更大的设计能更有效地利用摆动带来的剪切阻力降低，同时限制插入深度。基于这些发现，我们提出一种依据底质强度和尾部形态选择尾部动作的设计原则。研究成果为可变形地形上机器人的尾部设计与控制提供了新思路，适用于农业机器人、搜救任务及环境勘探等领域。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Deformable substrates such as sand and mud present significant challenges for terrestrial robots due to complex robot-terrain interactions. Inspired by mudskippers, amphibious animals that naturally adjust their tail morphology and movement jointly to navigate such environments, we investigate how tail design and control can jointly enhance flipper-driven locomotion on granular media. Using a bio-inspired robot modeled after the mudskipper, we experimentally compared locomotion performance between idle and actively oscillating tail configurations. Tail oscillation increased robot speed by 67% and reduced body drag by 46%. Shear force measurements revealed that this improvement was enabled by tail oscillation fluidizing the substrate, thereby reducing resistance. Additionally, tail morphology strongly influenced the oscillation strategy: designs with larger horizontal surface areas leveraged the oscillation-reduced shear resistance more effectively by limiting insertion depth. Based on these findings, we present a design principle to inform tail action selection based on substrate strength and tail morphology. Our results offer new insights into tail design and control for improving robot locomotion on deformable substrates, with implications for agricultural robotics, search and rescue, and environmental exploration.
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