A C. elegans-Inspired Micro-Robot with Polymeric Actuators and Online Vision
The 1mm long nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is one of the best characterized animals and an important biological model for studies of nervous system function and behavior. C. elegans locomotion is generated by the rhythmic contraction of muscles under the control and regulation of the animals nervous system. The final goal of this research is to build a robotic model mimicking this undulatory locomotion. Towards this end, a first prototype invertebrate wormbot using electroactive polymer is presented in this paper. The 25mm wormbot is made of a single ionic polymer-metal composite consisting of five segments that are controlled individually and can propagate a sinusoidal wave along the robot body similar to the movement of C. elegans. Solutions to the technical challenges of miniaturization, IPMC segmentation and small scale electrical wiring are also described. Finally, a digital image processing technique was developed for online sensory feedback. The system operates in real time and includes robust image noise removal.
Bao Kha Nguyen Jordan H. Boyle Abbas A. Dehghani–Sanij Netta Cohen
School of Computing,University of Leeds,Leeds,LS2 9JT,UK School of Computing,University of Leeds,Leeds LS2 9JT,UK School of Mechanical Engineering,University of Leeds,LS2 9JT,UK
国际会议
2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics(2009 IEEE 机器人与仿生技术国际会议 ROBIO 2009)
桂林
英文
765-770
2009-12-19（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）