Engineering Commons^™

Locomotion Of A Cylindrical Rolling Robot With A Shape Changing Outer Surface, Michael G. Puopolo, Jamey D. Jacob, Emilio Gabino

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A cylindrical rolling robot is developed that generates roll torque by changing the shape of its flexible, elliptical outer surface whenever one of four elliptical axes rotates past an inclination called trigger angle. The robot is equipped with a sensing/control system by which it measures angular position and angular velocity, and computes error with respect to a desired step angular velocity profile. When shape change is triggered, the newly assumed shape of the outer surface is determined according to the computed error. A series of trial rolls is conducted using various trigger angles, and energy consumed by the actuation motor …