Latest Papers

ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics

  • A Small-Scale Integrated Jumping-Crawling Robot: Design, Modeling, and Demonstration
    on June 16, 2025 at 12:00 am

    AbstractThe small jumping-crawling robot improves its obstacle-crossing ability by selecting appropriate locomotion methods. However, current research on jumping-crawling robots remains focused on enhancing specific aspects of performance, and several issues still exist, including nonadjustable gaits, poor stability, nonadjustable jumping posture, and poor motion continuity. This article presents a small jumping-crawling robot with decoupled jumping and crawling mechanisms, offline adjustable gaits, autonomous self-righting, autonomous steering, and certain slope-climbing abilities. The crawling mechanism adopts a partially adjustable Klann six-bar linkage, which can generate four stride lengths and three gaits. The jumping mechanism is designed as a six-bar linkage with passive compliance, and an active clutch allows energy storage and release in any state. The autonomous self-righting mechanism enables the robot to self-right after tipping over, meanwhile providing support, steering, and posture adjustment functions. Prototype experiments show that the designed robot demonstrates good motion stability and can climb a 45 deg slope without tipping over. The robot shows excellent steering performance, with a single action taking 5 s and achieving a steering angle of 11.5 deg. It also exhibits good motion continuity, with an average recovery time of 12 s to return to crawling mode after a jump. Crawling experiments on rough terrain demonstrate the feasibility of applying the designed robot in real-world scenarios.

Balloon Locomotion for Extreme Terrain

Abstract

BALLET (BALloon Locomotion for Extreme Terrain) is a new concept vehicle for robotic surface mobility on planetary bodies with an atmosphere. The vehicle is composed of a buoyant balloon with six evenly distributed suspended payload modules each serving as a foot for locomotion over inaccessible rugged terrain. While the physics of BALLET will apply on Venus and Mars, the environmental conditions and available component technology limit our consideration to Titan. We describe the concept in detail, its applications for science missions on Titan, mission deployment scenarios, analyses of the concept under varying environmental conditions, and simulations of its locomotion. The concept is shown to be feasible and provides a new approach for exploration of rugged lakes, dunes, shorelines, and cryovolcanic regions on Titan.
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