Design and simulation analysis of a bionic ostrich robot

• Published in: Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology Vol. 21; no. 6; pp. 1781 - 1801
• Main Authors: Chen, Guangrong, Wei, Ningze, Li, Jin, Lu, Huafeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Actuators; Biological and Medical Physics; Biological effects; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Bionics; Biophysics; Coupling; Design; Design optimization; Engineering; Gait; High speed; Jumping; Original Paper; Robot control; Robot dynamics; Robots; Running; Simulation; Simulation analysis; Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Torsion springs; Rigid-flexible coupling; Biped robot; Bionic; Performance analysis; Ostrich
• ISSN: 1617-7959; 1617-7940; 1617-7940
• DOI: 10.1007/s10237-022-01619-9

To look for the reason why the biped animal in nature can run with such high speed and to design a bionic biped prototype which can behave the high speed running and jumping ability, this paper takes the fastest bipedal animal in nature: ostrich as the research subject. Firstly, the body structure and motion characteristics of ostrich are investigated. Secondly, a simple mechanical structure of bionic ostrich robot is designed based on the above biological investigated results. The robot is under-actuated with one actuator each leg, with a spring on the tarsometatarsus and a torsion spring on the metatarsophalangeal joint at the foot end. And then the mechanical design of leg structure is optimized. Finally, the high-speed running and jumping running gait is planned, and comparative simulations are implemented with different design requirements among pure rigid and rigid-flexible coupling scheme, which are rigid, only with spring, only with torsion spring, and with spring and torsion spring both, in detail. Simulation results show that the rigid-flexible coupling design scheme and whole body motion coordination can achieve better high speed performance. It provides an insight for the design and control of legged robots.