Design and Implementation of a Caterpillar Robot

This paper proposed a low cost worm-shape robot that can mimic the locomotion of a caterpillar to crawl by arching and stretching its body. Based on the process of implementing the caterpillar robot, the participated students can built up their interdisciplinary skills. Students have to integrate the technologies of micro-controllers, sensors, materials and mechanisms. We used a Motoduino U1 module to drive 4 servomotors and Bluetooth module to communicate between robot and users. In order to imitate gaits of caterpillars, the body of the robot was made by using discrete PVC rings to flexibly arch. The robot also can be remotely controlled to crawl forward/back or right/left, and change its height of arched back. The weight and total length of the robot were bout 470g and 65cm, respectively. The experiment shows that when the caterpillar robot moves in line, the averaged speed of robot can be 25m/hr. The maximum rotating angle is 30° and the minimum rotating diameter is 120cm.