Bio-inspired Adaptive Latching System for Towing and Guiding Power-less Floating Platforms with Autonomous Robotic Boats
Autonomous robotic boats are expected to perform several tasks: 1) navigate autonomously in water environments, such as the canals of Amsterdam; 2) perform individual task, such as water monitoring, transporting goods and people; 3) latch together to create floating infrastructure, such as bridges a...
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Main Author | |
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Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
07.01.2020
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Autonomous robotic boats are expected to perform several tasks: 1) navigate
autonomously in water environments, such as the canals of Amsterdam; 2) perform
individual task, such as water monitoring, transporting goods and people; 3)
latch together to create floating infrastructure, such as bridges and markets.
In this paper we present a novel bio-inspired robotic system for latching,
towing and guiding a floating passive-power-less platform. The challenge is to
design an adaptive latching mechanism, able to create a secure connection
between the entities, easy to attach/detach, even if the boats are affected by
water disturbances. But most important, the adaptive latching must be able to
restricting the DoF (degrees of freedom) of the latched "dummy" platform.
Since, the robotic boat may drive it in narrow water canals and must prevent it
from drifting and hitting the wall.
This novel adaptive latching mechanism is based on the ball and socket joint
that allows rotation and free movements in two planes at the same time. It
consists of two parts: the male part that includes a bearing stud (ball)
integrated on the floating bin "dummy" and the female part located on the
autonomous robotic boat. Which integrates an adaptive framed funnel to guide
the male ball into an actuated receptor that traps the ball, creating the
ball-socket joint between the boats. In this sense, the adaptive latching
mechanism mimics squid's tentacles that can adjust the forces applied to a
holding object restricting its degrees of freedom.
Experimental results are presented from our swarm robotic boats integrating
the adaptive latching system and performing the towing and guiding use cases. |
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DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.2001.04293 |