Abstract
Recently, various method of robotic locomotion is studied. This paper presents a promotion mechanism using vibration and investigates a condition of resonance point drive. In this study, the locomotion device consists of some carts connected in series by springs added the friction mechanism is proposed. This mechanism occurs a different frictional force between forward traveling and backward traveling. This device obtains propulsion by vibration. Therefore, the driving condition using natural vibration is high efficiency. At first, the driving condition of the fastest promotion is investigated by experiment using two carts connected in series by single spring. Next, the effect for promotion velocity of vibration mode is investigated by experiment using some carts connected in series by springs. As results, the promotion in the condition of natural vibration frequency is the fastest, and the driving condition which use higher order mode including the reverse phase between carts is the most efficient. This is a result when damping is low enough. However, damping acts under influence exterior module of apparatus when vibration propulsion is used. Therefore, we investigate the effect of damping on propulsion characteristics. As results, velocity of higher order mode greatly decrease when damping acted, and the most efficient vibration mode changed.
