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Dynamics and Design of an Autonomous Small-Scale LaMSA Robot Inspired by the Click Beetle

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Engineering Challenges

Harvesting and releasing energy quickly in a robust and consistent manner is a major challenge for insect-scale and other small robots. Current actuators, especially at small scales, are not able to generate accelerations in the order of magnitude of 10  - 10  m/s  and release energy in less than 1 ms. This limits robots’ agility and adaptability capacities. Enabling robots to achieve high accelerations repeatedly will allow for improved  locomotion autonomy (i.e. ability to traverse unknown and unstructured terrains without external help).

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Nature's Inspiration

Many biological systems, including arthropods and plants, have evolved power amplified mechanisms to achieve extremely high accelerations when locomoting, striking, or projecting body elements. As no muscle can generate such fast motions, these systems use a combination of latches and bio-mechanical springs to store energy slowly and release it very quickly. Much like a bow and arrow, these systems use latch-mediated, spring actuated (LaMSA) movement. Click beetles have evolved a clicking mechanism based on LaMSA principles. When the body is unconstrained, the clicking motion may result in a legless jump. They initiate the movement by flexing and bracing their body. Thanks to a mechanical latch situated in the beetle’s thoracic hinge (see Figure below), this braced position is maintained while the energy is transferred from the muscles to the bio-mechanical springs. The latch is then disengaged and the stored potential energy is released almost instantaneously.

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(a) The click beetle anatomy and hinge components highlighted (Beetle image source: Ant Lab). (b) High speed x-ray imaging showing the phases of the click. Namely, latching, loading, and release from left to right with important hinge components highlighted which can be seen in the x-ray. (c) 3D views of the latch made up of the peg and lip, the actuator, hypothesized to be the left and right M4 muscles, and the spring hypothesized to be the mesonotum.

BAM Approach

Our goal is to design an insect-scale LaMSA mechanism inspired by click beetles and extend this knowledge into the development of a framework for studying energy propagation in LaMSA and LaMSA inspired mechanisms. Previously, we have focused on understanding, modeling and simulating the physics of the jump for beetles across a wide range of scales, while building prototypes to validate our model. We also examined the morphology of the hinge in greater detail for multiple species of click beetles using CT-scanning and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Our experimental and modeling results show that the hinge structures (peg and mesosternal lip) act as a mechanical latch. The latch allows for the braced position to be maintained during the energy storage and for the energy to be released through the spring's recoil as the hinge unlocks.

The phase of the click maneuver (latching, loading, and release) and the stages of the jump (pre-jump, take-off and airborne) have been identified with the use of high speed visible light and high speed x-ray videos. Additionally, the release phase of the click maneuver has been found to be governed by nonlinear elastic and damping forces using system identification processes.

Recent Results

Most recently, we have conducted experiments at Argonne National Laboratories Advanced Photon Source where we examined the effect of differing constraints and scales of click beetles and on the phases of the click maneuver. This work is currently being validated with an inertia model to assess the accuracy of our results.

We have also identified the mesonotum as a potential primary spring and the left and right M4 muscles as primary actuators and are currently examining the mesonotum's saddle shape geometry and the musculature properties using CT-scanning and high speed x-ray imaging to quantify the energy input to the system by the muscles, the energy stored in the springs, and the energy dissipated through the nonlinear damping forces.

  • Mathur, T., Viornery, L., Bolmin, O., Bergbreiter, S., & Wissa, A. (2024). Solution-driven bioinspired design: Themes of latch-mediated spring-actuated systems. MRS Bulletin, 1-12.

  • Bolmin, O., Socha, J. J., Alleyne, M., Dunn, A. C., Fezzaa, K., & Wissa, A. A. (2021). Nonlinear elasticity and damping govern ultrafast dynamics in click beetles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(5), e2014569118.

  • Bolmin, O., Wei, L., Hazel, A. M., Dunn, A. C., Wissa, A., & Alleyne, M. (2019). Latching of the click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) thoracic hinge enabled by the morphology and mechanics of conformal structures. Journal of Experimental Biology, 222(12), jeb196683.

  • Bolmin, O., Duan, C., Urrutia, L., Abdulla, A. M., Hazel, A. M., Alleyne, M., ... & Wissa, A. (2017). Pop! Observing and modeling the legless self-righting jumping mechanism of click beetles. In Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems: 6th International Conference, Living Machines 2017, Stanford, CA, USA, July 26–28, 2017, Proceedings 6 (pp. 35-47). Springer International Publishing.

Acknowledgments

This project is developed in collaboration with the Materials Tribology Laboratory, the ABC Laboratory (Dr Alleyne, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), the Socha Lab (Virginia Tech).

BAM Lab
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