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.

Planar Variable Structure Cable-Driven Parallel Robots for Circumventing Obstacles

Abstract

This article aims to address some of the current limitations of cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) by enabling regional changes in dynamic structure through collisions between cables and fixed objects placed in the work area (such as idler pulleys). This leads to the definition of a new class of robots referred to as variable structure cable-driven parallel robots (VSCRs). One of the major advancements from VSCRs is their ability to cover nonconvex reachable workspaces: a significant relaxation on the constraints of traditional CDPRs that is especially useful for circumventing obstacles and has implications for a wide range of applications. Specific examples of vertical farming and rehabilitation are demonstrated experimentally. It is shown that VSCRs can dramatically improve the reachability and accessible workspace of traditional CDPRs. In addition, an online method for solving the planar VSCR inverse kinematics problem is introduced, which is based on an extended cable model. The method is general and has been validated through experimental studies.
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