This award addresses issues of hybrid robotic locomotion systems --- robotic systems that utilize multiple locomotion modalities in order to achieve greater mobility. Examples of these systems include the use of arms or legs by a wheeled robot to walk or climb stairs, or the use of a tail by a legge&robot to provide swimming thrust or bracing forces in underground tunnels or pipes. Such systems can provide robotic platforms capable of operating in multiple environments, such as underwater, in pipes, or overland. Central to this research is how to generate appropriate input patterns, or gaits, for hybrid robotic locomotion systems, and how to modify these gaits when moving between environments, such as land to water. Other issues include the development of measures of terrain difficulty and mobility for robotic systems. These would provide a characterization of the mobility of a given robot configuration in relation to the difficulty of the path it must follow through the environment. Issues of sensing, both of the environment and of contact forces acting on the robot, will be addressed. The use of modular components will also be emphasized, in order to provide basic modules, such as legs, tails, and wheels, that can be rapidly configured into a complete robotic system. Using modular components, the experimental side of this research will, focus on the development of three basic robotic platforms: a salamander, a wheel-legged system, and an eel robot. Each of these systems will potentially possess advanced locomotion and manipulation capabilities that greatly exceed those found in existing robotic systems.
The education plan includes building visualization tools and graphics animation to help graduate students understanding difficult concepts by illustration. A website will be established for sharing such tools with educators around the world. At the undergraduate level, research will be integrated into education through senior design projects and the newly formed Penn Robotics Club. At the middle and high school level, an existing robotics mentoring program will be strengthened by introducing an internet-based mobile robot, with associated short-course modules.
