Skip to main content

Insect-inspired, Actively Compliant Hexapod Capable of Object Manipulation

  • Conference paper
Climbing and Walking Robots

Abstract

Insects, in general, are agile creatures capable of navigating uneven and difficult terrain with ease. The leaf-cutter ants (Atta), specifically, are agile, social insects capable of navigating uneven and difficult terrain, manipulating objects in their environment, broadcasting messages to other leaf-cutter ants, performing collective tasks, and operating in cooperative manners with others of their kind [9][12]. These traits are desirable in a mobile robot. However, no robots have been developed that encompass all of these capabilities. As such, this research developed the Biologically-Inspired Legged-Locomotion Ant prototype (BILL-ANT-p) to fill the void. This paper discusses the features, development, and implementation of the BILL-Ant-p robot, quantifies its capabilities for use as a compliant mobile platform that is capable of object manipulation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Barnes, D. P., “Hexapodal Robot Locomotion over Uneven Terrain,” in Proc. IEEE Conf. on Control Applications. Trieste, Italy, pp. 441–445, September 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Berns, K., “The Walking Machine Catalog: Walking Machine Catalog,” World Wide Web, http://www.walking-machines.org/, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Brooks, R. A., “A Robot That Walks; Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully Evolved Network” Technical Report, MIT AI Lab Memo 1091, Cambridge, MA, USA February 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Buschmann, A., “Home of Tarry I & II: Design of the Walking Machine Tarry II,” World Wide Web, http://www.tarry.de, March 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Cruse, H., “What Mechanisms Coordinate Leg Movement in Walking Arthropods?” Trends in Neurosciences, Vol. 13, pp. 15–21, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Espenschied, K. S., Quinn, R. D., Chiel, H.J., and Beer, R. D., “Biologically Based Distributed Control and Local Reflexes Improve Rough Terrain Locomotion in a Hexapod Robot,” Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 18, pp. 59–64, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Espenschied, K. S., Quinn, R. D., Chiel, H. J., and Beer, R. D., “Leg Coordination Mechanisms in Stick Insect Applied to Hexapod Robot Locomotion,” Adaptive Behavior, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 455–468, 1993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gaßmann, B., Scholl, K.-U., Berns, K., “Behavior Control of LAURON III for Walking in Unstructured Terrain,” in Proc. Intl. Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR’ 01), pp. 651–658, Karlsruhe, Germany, September 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hölldobler, B. and Wilson, E., The Ants, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Lewinger, W. A., “Insect-inspired, Actively Compliant Robotic Hexapod,” M. S. Thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA, 2005. (http://biorobots.cwru.edu/publications/Thesis05_Lewinger_BILL-Antp.pdf)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Pfeiffer, F., Weidemann, H. J., Eltze, J., “The TUM Walking Machine.-In: Intelligent Automation and Soft Computing,” Trends in Research, Development and Applications, TSI Press, Vol. 2, pp. 167–174, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Yahya, H., The Miracle in the Ant, Ta-Ha Publishers, Inc., London, United Kingdom, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Lewinger, W.A., Branicky, M.S., Quinn, R.D. (2006). Insect-inspired, Actively Compliant Hexapod Capable of Object Manipulation. In: Tokhi, M.O., Virk, G.S., Hossain, M.A. (eds) Climbing and Walking Robots. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26415-9_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26415-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-26413-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-26415-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics