提出可降低摩擦的三角滚轮式探头支架,实现高速软体藤蔓机器人稳定生长
Gotta Grow Fast: Design and Benchmarking of a Tip Mount for High-Speed Vine Robots

- 用三角滚轮替代滑动结构,减少内部阻力
- 实验显示其尾端张力最低,生长更稳定重复
- 提供可复现的评测方法,适合传感器集成研究者
软体藤蔓机器人通过顶端外翻机制实现生长,可在复杂环境中导航。但因顶端材料持续更新,给摄像头等传感器的安装带来挑战。内部层间摩擦、额外重量和织物约束加剧了安装难度,限制了其在巡检与搜寻任务中的应用。本文提出一种三角滚轮式探头支架,通过滚动取代滑动,显著降低生长阻力。设计经多轮故障分析优化,首次实现对涂覆TPU的尼龙织物藤蔓机器人的稳定外翻。为量化评估,构建专用测试平台,通过测量外翻过程中的尾端张力来隔离支架影响。对比多种支架设计(含已有方案),新设计在张力最小化和生长一致性方面表现最优。成果不仅验证了有效支架设计,也建立了可复现的评测框架,推动软体生长机器人中传感器与工具集成发展。设计文件已公开于:https://sprout-mitll.github.io/tip_mounts/
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Soft, growing vine robots extend through tip eversion, a mechanism that enables navigation through cluttered environments. However, integrating cameras and other sensors at the tip is uniquely challenging because the material forming the tip is constantly renewed as the robot grows. This continual material turnover, combined with friction between internal layers, added tip weight, and fabric constriction, complicates sensor and tool mounting. These limitations hinder the deployment of vine robots for inspection and search tasks, where rapid growth while carrying tip-mounted sensors is essential. In this work, we present a triangular roller tip mount that reduces internal resistance during growth by rolling rather than sliding against the robot body. The design was refined through iterative failure analysis, enabling, for the first time, consistent eversion on a TPU-coated ripstop nylon vine robot. To quantitatively evaluate mount performance, we introduce a custom testbed that isolates tip mounting effects by measuring tail tension during eversion. Comparative experiments across multiple mount variants, including prior designs, show that our triangular roller mount achieves the lowest tail tension and most repeatable growth performance. These results establish both a validated tip mount design and a repeatable benchmarking framework for advancing sensor and tool integration in soft growing robots. CAD for the mount and testbed is available at: https://sprout-mitll.github.io/tip_mounts/.
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