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.

Folding Responses of Origami-Inspired Structures Connected by Groove Compliant Joints

Abstract

The compliant mechanism can effectively reduce friction and eliminate the joint gap during the motion. The performances of compliant joints directly determine the overall behavior of mechanisms. In this paper, a new type of compliant joint is designed based on weakened creases and elastic–plastic materials. Parametric analysis is carried out to investigate the influence of compliant joint details on its structural performances by combining finite element methods and experiments. The compliant joints are evaluated and optimized regarding the rotational stiffness and plastic strain magnitude of the slot region. In addition, the optimized compliant joint is introduced to the Miura unit. The configuration analysis is performed for the folding, unfolding, and releasing processes, which are further extended to the discussion on the cyclic performance of the compliant joint. It can be found that the origami-inspired structures can maintain a high residual stiffness after the release process. Finally, the methodology is applied to the Miura origami array embedded with the designed compliant joint. The results of dimensional errors and stress distributions can show that the design of the compliant joints can effectively control the configuration of the Miura origami array. The principle in this paper can open a new avenue to design and utilize the compliant in the deployable or morphing structures.

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