Dynamic Analysis & Motion Control of A Bio-mimic Robot

Bio-mimetic designed robot has caught people’s imagination for centuries. People have always wondered how the cockroach survived the mass destruction that killed all the dinosaurs. Cockroaches are small and they move fast. There is no difficulty for them to can climb into tunnels or narrow spaces. It is thus possible to use a bio-mimetic robot to explore dangerous areas and even search for survivors. This thesis discusses the design and building of a bio-mimetic robot by imitating the cockroach. Noting that legs are more effective than wheels to move around, the robot is based on six-legged design. This thesis conducted cockroach gait analysis and used shape memory alloy (SMA) for the actuation mechanism. The SMA design also helps to reduce weight overall size. The controller is based on an ARM920T-S3C2410 to implement the various gaits. The experiment results are also included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the control.