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Through this project, we aim to overcome the disadvantages mentioned in the current brachiating robot. Our goal is to introduce a 1 DOF swinging arm mechanism that follows a set motion profile to reduce control complexity and use significantly fewer motors. By doing so, we expect the price of the robot to decrease and the speed of traversing to increase.
Complex to control | Slow movement |
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.08373.pdf
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The most challenging part will likely be the specifics of how the arms grip and release the overhead bars. Using a linkage for locomotion restricts our control over the angle of the end effector, which complicates the grasping process.
Preliminary design ideas
The above mechanism is a variation on a six-bar walker. The end effector would attach to the end of link 6. On the left side of the highlighted path, the arm approaches the bar from below and grabs onto it. It then moves in a straight line to the right while holding the bar, propelling the body to the left. At the rightmost end, it lifts up and releases the bar before circling back around to repeat the process.