Structural design and dynamic analysis of biologically inspired water-jumping robot

Abstract

Water strider is an amazing insect that can effortlessly float, quickly run and jump on a water surface without drowning. It's of great challenge and interest to design and fabricates a micro robot that can walk on a water surface like water strider to carry out aquatic tasks such as water quality monitoring, aquatic exploration, water search and rescue. In this study, we designed a new type of biologically inspired water-jumping robot on the basis of the locomotion mechanism of water strider. The lifting force of the supporting legs, the driven force obtained by the actuating legs and the resistant force exerted on the robot are analyzed by simplified models. A dynamic analysis and simulation by ADAMS are performed on the jumping movement of the robot. By optimizing the robot structure, and adjusting the driven mode and the center of gravity location, the robot finally possesses a good jumping performance on water surface in a typical simulation. This study not only offers a better understanding of the water-jumping capability of water strider, but may prove helpful in the research of water strider robots.