Advanced Locomotion Mechanisms and their Control Systems of Service Robots - Finding Ideas from Nature

摘要

The paper discusses about locomotion and propulsion mechanisms and their control systems of field and service robots. Most of these robots need a good ability to move because they have to go after their jobs unlike robots in industry. Although many solutions used nowadays are already quite advanced they are still far from optimal and especially far from what nature has developed trough evolution, which can in many cases offer good references for further improvements. Besides maneuvering capability and adaptability to changes in the environment low energy efficiency is a problem in many man made locomotion systems of today, which make difficult to obtain the high energy autonomy desired for most applications. Some non-standard advanced existing solutions are presented and their properties discussed.