A novel robot design of vibration based locomotion on water surface

In this study, a novel amphibious robot design which has vibration based locomotion is presented. The design was done by using an example of a terrestrial robot based on vibration that was previously developed and tested. This robot structure consists of a U-shaped elastic curved beam and a small rotating mass, mounted on the center of the spine, that induces free vibration of the entire robot body. The mechanism exhibits hopping locomotion behavior based on free vibration. The energy efficient hopping locomotions of the newly designed robot both on terrestrial and water surfaces were successfully accomplished. The effect of different vibration frequencies on the locomotion velocity and the Cost of Transport (CoT) of the mechanism were investigated experimentally. In addition to these, experiments were also repeated for six different foot structures produced in semi-elliptic and triangular models, and the locomotion performance of foot models both on terrestrial and water surfaces was discussed. The Cost of Transport of the designed robot was compared with that of some robots and creatures in the literature.