A new design and analysis of compliant spine mechanism for caterpillar climbing robot

Due to low energy consuming and being suitable for climbing robots to scale various vertical wall using spines, this approach inspired by animals and insects is employed in the design of our modular caterpillar climbing robot. According to the caterpillar robot mechanism configuration, spines can be driven passively. To improve the probability of engagement and disengagement of spines, the trajectory and the compliant driving mechanism of spines are discussed in depth in this paper. Then a model of one module of the robot is built for detail design. The driving torque of active joint is also analyzed. In the end, the movement of a spine is simulated by Adams, whose results verify the feasibility of our design and the validity of analysis.