Design and bouncing performance study of spring slider type bouncing robots

ObjectiveTo increase the obstacle crossing performance of robots and enhance their terrain adaptability, a “walking jumping dual purpose” robot with a composite jumping mechanism on wheeled robots was designed and studied.MethodsThe bouncing mechanism was designed with a combination of springs and cylinder sliders, where energy was stored in the springs to enable bouncing. Firstly, a rebound mechanism scheme was designed and a virtual simulation prototype was built. Then, in order to study the relation between the sliding rod length and the motion, the relation between the sliding rod of the mechanism and the swing angle of the jumping leg was obtained through the kinematic modeling of the mechanism, and the velocity and acceleration of the mechanism were analyzed. Thirdly, a mechanism dynamics model was established based on the Lagrangian dynamics method, and the influence of the rotation angle and angular acceleration on the torque of each member was obtained. Further analysis through the oblique upward throwing motion model, the relation between the robot’s takeoff angle and its bounce performance was studied.ResultsJumping simulations were conducted on the robot using Adams software to verify the accuracy of the theoretical modeling, as well as the good jumping performance and smoothness of the robot.