RAMBLER Robot is designed for researching insect inspired behavioral control algorithms. To evaluate these algorithms, RAMBLER Robot needs autonomous localization without typical sensors like wheel odometers or GPS. The primary objective of this work is to independently, accurately, and robustly recover the path of a moving robotic system with low-cost sensors available off-the-shelf. The computationally efficient power center method of triangulation is compared to a particle filter approach. With three passive indistinguishable landmarks at corners of a small arena, RAMBLER Robot successfully localizes with an RMS error of 2.27cm compared to an overhead camera ground truth.

Gecko-inspired structured adhesives will be valuable for novel climbing and space robots. Robots also provide useful evaluation platforms for these adhesives. Climbing robots need to be lightweight, and thus many designs use multiple feet on a single rotating wheel-leg. Generally, such designs have not been able to walk robustly on steeper than vertical substrates. In this work, we use an improved version of our previous Mushroom-Shaped Adhesive MicroStructured (MSAMS) tape to support a power-autonomous robot reliably walking inverted on glass ceilings. The resulting speeds are greater than one body/length per second, faster than other adhesion-based climbing prototypes. The printed robot design is also a contribution toward future robotic designs and will have future applications in testing new adhesives for robotic feet.

Cockroach shelter-seeking strategy may look like an undirected random search, but we show that they are attracted to darkened shelters, arriving at a shelter in about half the time it would otherwise take. We were able to identify four statistically significant trends from the behavior of 134 cockroaches in one-minute naïve walking trials with four different arena configurations. By combining these trends into a model, we arrive at an algorithm that significantly directs a simulated agent to a location. This algorithm was then adapted and tested on a small mobile robot equipped with an onboard camera and antenna-like contact sensors.

Several recently-designed robots are able to scale steep surfaces using animal-inspired strategies for foot attachment and leg kinematics. These designs could be valuable for reaching high vantage points or for overcoming large obstacles. However, most of these robots cannot transition between intersecting surfaces. For example, our previous Climbing Mini-WhegsTMrobot cannot make a 90deg transition from a vertical wall up onto a flat horizontal surface. It is known that cockroaches bend their body to accomplish such transitions. This concept has been simplified to a single-axis body joint which allows ground-walking robots to cross uneven terrain. In this work, we examine the effect of a body joint on wall-climbing vehicles using both a kinematic simulation and two prototype Climbing Mini-WhegsTMrobots. The simulation accurately predicts that the better design has the body joint axle closer to the center of the robot than to the front wheel- legs for orthogonal exterior transitions for a wide range of initial conditions. In the future, the methods and principles demonstrated here could be used to improve the design of climbing robots for other environments.

Insects and geckos use claws and adhesive pads to negotiate both rough and smooth surfaces. Climbing robots have been designed to mimic various aspects of these and other biological systems to operate in specific vertical environments. Robots that adhere to the surface through suction cups, magnetic end-effectors, or adhesive pads can climb featureless, flat, or smoothly curved surfaces. Vortex-generating climbers do not require smooth surfaces. Robots have been designed with end-effectors that match specific features of the environment, such as peg-holes, handrails, climbing-wall footholds, and poles. Robots have also been fitted with insect-inspired spines to scale rough vertical surfaces.

Insights from biology have helped reduce the weight and increase the climbing ability of mobile robots. This paper presents Screenbot, see Fig. 1, a new 126 gram biologically-inspired robot that scales wire mesh substrates using spines. Like insects, it walks with an alternating tripod gait and maintains tension in opposing legs to keep the feet attached to the substrate. A single motor drives all six legs. Mechanisms were designed and tested to move the spines into and out of contact with the screen. After the spine engages the substrate, springs along the leg are compressed. The opposing lateral spring forces constitute a distributed inward grip that is similar to forces measured on climbing insects and geckos. The distributed inward gripping (DIG) holds the robot on the screen, allowing it to climb vertically, walk inverted on a screen ceiling and cling passively in these orientations.

Abstract—Mini-Whegs™, a power-autonomous vehicle that uses multi-spoke wheel-legs for locomotion, is able to climb vertical glass surfaces with several different wheel-leg designs. Adhesion to the glass is achieved using pressure sensitive adhesives. In this paper, high-speed video is used to compare the performance and contact area during steps of five passive foot designs. The contact area, when normalized by the leg length, may help explain the differences in performance between several designs. C I.

We previously presented a remote-controlled robot, Climbing Mini-Whegstrade, which scales vertical glass walls using passive compliant feet on simple rotating wheel-legs [1]. With a single drive motor, the legs of the robot press the feet against the glass, then gradually peel them away, mimicking the foot motions observed in insects. With feet made of scotch tape, the robot was able to walk on glass walls and ceilings and transition between surfaces intersecting at interior angles. This paper demonstrates that using passively compliant feet on simple rotating wheel-legs a robot can apply adhesive feet, spines, and Velcro in order to climb various steep substrates.

Abstract – The ability to walk on surfaces regardless of the presence or direction of gravity can significantly increase the mobility of a robot for both terrestrial and space applications. Insects and geckos can provide inspiration for both novel adhesive technology and for the locomotory mechanisms employed during climbing. For this work, Mini-Whegs™, a small quadruped robot that uses wheel-legs for locomotion, was altered to explore the feasibility of scaling vertical surfaces using compliant, adhesive feet. Modifications were made to reduce its weight, and its legs were redesigned to enable its feet to better attach and detach from the substrate, mimicking homologous actions observed in animals. The resulting vehicle is selfcontained, power-autonomous, and weighs only 87 grams. Using pressure-sensitive tape, it is capable of walking up a vertical surface, walking upside-down along an inverted surface, and transitioning between orthogonal surfaces. Index Terms – Biologically inspired robotics, wall-climbing robots, adhesive-based climbing vehicles.