Design and manufacturing of  water strider robot based on  novel driving mechanism

SUN Tianfu1, LI Zhe2, LUO Jing 2，LIANG Yande2

(1 Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China;
 2School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China)

Abstract: Aiming at mimicking water strider’s excellent performance on water,a novel bionic robot based on the principle that water strider could walk on water surface was introduced A novel type of gear which combined with an inner ratchet mechanism with a signal pawl was applied to the robot as the transmission driving mechanism The gear not only could work as an overrunning clutch， but also had the ability of keeping the transmission shaft’s phase position The hardware and software of the robot’s control system were developed Tests to measure performance were executed in laboratory conditionThe experimental result indicates that the water strider robot is quite controllable while advancing or turning around on water surface Moreover, the most marked characteristic of the robot is its very small turning radius, which permits a more flexible movement in a narrower channel

Key words: bionic; robot; water strider;overrunning clutch; inner ratchet