Mechanical design and experimental research on locomotion characters of robot inspired by water strider

Abstract

This paper presents the mechanical design and experimental research of a water strider inspired robot, which are six-legged creatures that move on water by propelling themselves using two stroke legs and supporting themselves with four other legs. As the surface tension of water is too less for the robot to carry heavy facilities, four hollow ellipsoids made of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) were used for the supporting legs. Instead of screw propeller, the rowing legs, just like what water strider does, would have less infection in the water which is a great advantage for the robot to finish meticulous task. Because of the novel propeller, this robot can operate in various environments, such as windy lake, underground pipeline, and even in the sea. The total weight of the robot is 439g, with an additional load capacity of 400g. By optimizing the robot's structure and driving mode, this robot possesses good performance on water and can reach an average speed of 125.5mm/s in the water. The stability of the robot will be calculated in this paper. Experiments were conducted in the pool at the Zhoushan Campus of Zhejiang University.