James Dickson, and Jonathan E. Clark
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Florida A&M University - Florida State University College of Engineering
2525 Pottsdamer Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32310
Animals have shown the ability to climb vertical surfaces with high speed and stability. Utilizing the underlying dynamics of these animals, robotic platforms have been developed that climb vertical surfaces with similar speed. It is hypothesized that the pre-incidence angle of the legs, commonly referred to as sprawl angle, for these robotic platforms can significantly affect vertical velocities, efficiency, and stability as well as passively controlling body oscillations. To date, little empirical work has been conducted on the effect of sprawl angle and wall inclination on the performance of dynamic climbing platforms. This paper presents initial research utilizing a biologically inspired dynamical climbing platform to understand the effect of sprawl angle and wall inclination on dynamic climbing. Simulations have shown that a sprawl angle of 30
degrees maximizes vertical velocity overall, while experimental results show that a sprawl angle of approximately 10 degrees maximizes vertical velocity, while in both increasing sprawl angle increases lateral velocities over all wall inclinations.Keywords: Dynamic climbing; sprawl angle; bio-inspired robotics