Design, modeling and prototyping of bio-inspired robot actuated by piezoelectric transducers

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design and development of a bio-inspired mobile robot using piezoelectric transducers as drives. The design of the device aimed to imitate the trajectory movement of a crawl-like animal. Design constraints as producing controlled movement with piezoelectric transducer, as well as the combination of multiple piezoelectric patches into one mobile robot are presented in their practical aspects. The robot uses 2 piezoelectric transducers as main drives, but also as main structural components of the device. The patches are connected with a thin light rod, and the kinematic of movement is achieved with 4 tiny wooden legs connected on each of the patches. The project investigates the possibility and effectiveness of the piezoelectric transducers for movement of the bio-inspired mobile robot. From conceptual development, to the mechanical and numerical design and control, the mobile robot is used to test different trajectories of movement. Ni RIO Evaluation kit has been incorporated as a real-time and FPGA control platform for the mobile robot while using LabView programing environment. To accomplish complex trajectories of movement the velocity of the robot was measured for straight line and rotation of the robot. Mathematical model is built and analyzed through SimMechanics module in Matlab.