압전작동기를 이용한 곤충 모방 육족 로봇의 개발

This paper reports the development of a mesoscale six-legged walking robot which uses two pieces of piezoelectric actuator named LIPCA(Lightweight Piezoceramic Composite curved Actuator) to realize the walking motion. LIPCA consists of a piezoelectric ceramic layer and composite material layers of glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy. It has a lighter structure and generates a higher force and a large displacement than other conventional piezo-composite type actuators. Like most six-legged walking insects including cockroaches, our robot uses the alternating tripod gait where the front and rear legs on the same side move together with the middle leg on the other side for its locomotion. Two LIPCA strips in different phases are used for actuating each tripod. In addition to the tripod gait, the functions of cockroach’s legs are reflected in the design of our robot. All the experiments with the prototype show that LIPCA can be used as an alternative actuator for small and light mobile robots.