Bee+: A 95-mg Four-Winged Insect-Scale Flying Robot Driven by Twinned Unimorph Actuators

Artificial annelid robot driven by soft actuators.

The annelid provides a biological solution of effective locomotion adaptable to a large variety of unstructured environmental conditions. The undulated locomotion of the segmented body in the annelid is characterized by the combination of individual motion of the muscles distributed along the body, which has been of keen interest in biomimetic investigation. In this paper, we present an annelid...

Stimuli-induced bi-directional hydrogel unimorph actuators

Stimuli responsive hydrogels may be promising materials for shape transforming structures due to their ability to deform significantly in response to an environmental stimulus without the need for external power. It is well-known that by laminating swelling hydrogels and non-swelling flexible materials, such as inert elastomers, bending actuation can be achieved. In this work, we report an impr...

Four-cable-driven parallel robot

This paper presents design and kinematic analysis for a cable-driven parallel robotic (CDPR) manipulator with four cables, The CDPR manipulator produces a planar motion including two translational and one rotational degrees of freedom. To move the end-effector of CDPR, its kinematic structure is analyzed and the inverse kinematics is formulated in the closed-form solution. The experimental test...

Jumping in a winged stick insect.

The Thailand winged stick insect (Sipyloidea sp.) flees rapidly from a disturbance by jumping forwards when stimulated on the abdomen and backwards when stimulated on the head. The mechanisms underlying these fast movements were analysed by measuring movements of the body and legs from images captured at 250 Hz. A forward jump of both adults and nymphs involves movements of the abdomen and the ...

Energy Efficient Driving of Piezoelectric Actuators for the Micromechanical Flying Insect