A Study on Posture Control and Soft Landing of a Free Falling Robot : 1st Report, Posture Control by Turning Motion of a Cat

摘要

The authors developed a 3D moving robot 'ROBOT CAT' which could control its posture in the air and could perform soft landing. This paper describes the control method of the ROBOT CAT and the experimental results. An animal cat can control its body by turning motion when released upside down from a high place. In order to realize this turning motion, the ROBOT CAT was consisted in two parts (anterior and posterior body) connected with a flexible backbone which has two degrees of freedom of motion. The backbone proposed in this paper operates on two pairs of artificial rubber muscles driven by compressed air. It is possible that this motion is applied to the posture control of astronauts and space structures.