TY - JOUR TI - Design and fabrication of test bed for evaluating the locomotion of a robot with compliant actuators DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-zr0p-9m20 PY - 2020 AB - The main objective of this project was to fabricate a test bed for a robot capable of locomotion on land and in water. After completing the main objective, we desired to measure the cost of transport and compare the robot’s efficiency when either the rigidity or shape of the actuator was changed. Ultimately, a robot capable of swimming using oscillating actuators was successfully fabricated. This thesis describes the mechanical design and fabrication as well as the LabView program used to control the robot and acquire data. Before fabrication, the components of the robot were modeled in SolidWorks so we could avoid having issues properly placing components. The CAD models also allowed us to improve the robot’s design when these issues were noticed. The LabView program allows the operator to manually control the robot. The program also allows the robot to swim autonomously along a straight path using feedback from its IMU sensors. These sensors return information on the robot body orientation and heading. By collecting data through video, in conjunction with a MATLAB program written to analyze the images, it will be possible to determine the robot’s displacement, and furthermore, its efficiency. The results of this project will hopefully lead to improvements in current water-based robot design. KW - Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering LA - English ER -