Bioinspiration to Robot Locomotion implementing 3D printed Foxtail Grass

In nature, plants have unique microstructures that have been adapted for engineering applications. In this study, we propose a simple and fast 3D printed anisotropic mobile robot based on the foxtail grass structure. Employing liquid bridge printing method, angled standing microfibers function as robot legs in a controllable manner of the velocity. Under alternative magnetic fields, the robot body vibrates to induce unidirectional locomotion. Experiments confirm the relation of the frequency of the magnetic fields with the velocity of the robot and identify an optimal tilting angle of legs for faster locomotion. In addition, LuGre friction model is applied to analyze the locomotion process and to simulate the behavior of the anisotropic structure of the legs, which demonstrates the significance of the locomotive mechanism of our bioinspired robot. Under alternative magnetic fields, our proposed multipede robot is remotely manipulated in enclosed and unstructured environments, which exhibits a significant advantage of rapid locomotion.