Development of agricultural bionic mechanisms:Investigation of the effects of joint angle and pressure on the stability of goats moving on sloping lands

The use of small-scale agricultural machinery becomes prevalent as it provides the stability of agricultural machinery research ideas.To lay the theoretical foundation for the research and design of agriculture walking mechanism,the Phantom Camera Control software was used to measure the anterior and posterior joint angle of a goat walking on different slopes.Foot pressure was measured by the film pressure sensor.The result of joint motion sequence,range of motion,and change of range showed that the fitting degree of the measured value was accurate.As the goat walking speed increased,the level of the hind limb angle changed to ensure itself stability.When the goat is walking,the forelimbs bear more weight than the hind limbs due to the different static and physiological structures of the front and rear legs.The key parameters of gait on different slopes were analyzed.The curve of angle change of legs was measured and analyzed when the goat is walking in slope.The results showed that,with the increase of the slope gradient,the anterior hip angle ranges from 83.3°to 117.1°,the posterior hip angle ranges at 120.3°-173.1°,the left knee angle ranges from 91.3°to 170.1°,the right knee angle is roughly the same as its range of variation.When the slope increased,the pressure change of left hind foot was consistent with that of the right anterior foot,and the pressure change of right hind foot was consistent with that of the left anterior foot.This demonstrated the theory of diagonal gait.Meanwhile,with the change of the slope,the plantar pressure of the limbs changes periodically.The research results verified the rationality of the four-legged bionic mechanism under various parameters,which can provide a theoretical basis for the design of agricultural walking mechanism to adapt different slopes in the hilly and mountainous areas.

Bionic Mechanism and Kinematics Analysis of Hopping Robot Inspired by Locust Jumping

A flexible-rigid hopping mechanism which is inspired by the locust jumping was proposed, and its kinematic characteris- tics were analyzed. A series of experiments were conducted to observe locust morphology and jumping process. According to classic mechanics, the jumping process analysis was conducted to build the relationship of the locust jumping parameters. The take-offphase was divided into four stages in detail. Based on the biological observation and kinematics analysis, a mechanical model was proposed to simulate locust jumping. The forces of the flexible-rigid hopping mechanism at each stage were ana- lyzed. The kinematic analysis using pseudo-rigid-body model was described by D-H method. It is confirmed that the proposed bionic mechanism has the similar performance as the locust hind leg in hopping. Moreover, the jumping angle which decides the jumping process was discussed, and its relation with other parameters was established. A calculation case analysis corroborated the method. The results of this paper show that the proposed bionic mechanism which is inspired by the locust hind limb has an excellent kinematics performance, which can provide a foundation for design and motion planning of the hopping robot.

Dynamic model and performance analysis of landing buffer for bionic locust mechanism

The landing buffer is an important problem in the research on bionic locust jumping robots, and the different modes of landing and buffering can affect the dynamic performance of the buffering process significantly. Based on an experimental observation, the different modes of landing and buffering are determined, which include the different numbers of landing legs and different motion modes of legs in the buffering process. Then a bionic locust mechanism is established, and the springs are used to replace the leg muscles to achieve a buffering effect. To reveal the dynamic performance in the buffering process of the bionic locust mechanism, a dynamic model is established with different modes of landing and buffering. In particular, to analyze the buffering process conveniently, an equivalent vibration dynamic model of the bionic locust mechanism is proposed.Given the support forces of the ground to the leg links, which can be obtained from the dynamic model, the spring forces of the legs and the impact resistance of each leg are the important parameters affecting buffering performance, and evaluation principles for buffering performance are proposed according to the aforementioned parameters. Based on the dynamic model and these evaluation principles, the buffering performances are analyzed and compared in different modes of landing and buffering on a horizontal plane and an inclined plane. The results show that the mechanism with the ends of the legs sliding can obtain a better dynamic performance. This study offers primary theories for buffering dynamics and an evaluation of landing buffer performance,and it establishes a theoretical basis for studies and engineering applications.

Bionic Attitude Transformation Combined with Closed Motion for a Free Floating Space Robot

In order to realize the small error attitude transformation of a free floating space robot,a new method of three degrees of freedom（ DOF） attitude transformation was proposed for the space robot using a bionic joint. A general kinematic model of the space robot was established based on the law of linear and angular momentum conservation. A combinational joint model was established combined with bionic joint and closed motion. The attitude transformation of planar,two DOF and three DOF is analyzed and simulated by the model,and it is verified that the feasibility of attitude transformation in three DOF space. Finally,the specific scheme of disturbance elimination in attitude transformation is presented and simulation results are obtained.Therefore,the range of application field of the bionic joint model has been expanded.

Effects of bionic mechanical stimulation on the properties of engineered cartilage tissue

Tissue-engineered cartilage(TEC)remains a potential alternative for the repair of articular cartilage defects.However,there has been a significant different between the properties of TEC and those of natural cartilage.Studies have shown that mechanical stimulation such as compressive load can help regulate matrix remodelling in TEC,thus affecting its biomechanical properties.However,the influences of shear induced from the tissue fluid phase have not been well studied and may play an important role in tissue regeneration especially when integrated with the compressive load.Therefore,the aim of this study was to quantitatively investigate the effects of combined loading mechanisms on TEC in vitro.A bespoke biosimulator was built to incorporate the coupled motion of compression,friction and shear.The specimens,encapsulating freshly isolated rabbit chondrocytes in a hydrogel,were cultured within the biosimulator under various mechanical stimulations for 4 weeks,and the tissue activity,matrix contents and the mechanical properties were examined.Study groups were categorized according to different mechanical stimulation combinations,including strain(5-20%at 5%intervals)and frequency(0.25 Hz,0.5 Hz,1 Hz),and the effects on tissue behaviour were investigated.During the dynamic culture process,a combined load was applied to simulate the combined effects of compression,friction and shear on articular cartilage during human movement.The results indicated that a larger strain and higher frequency were more favourable for the specimen in terms of the cell proliferation and extracellular matrix synthesis.Moreover,the combined mechanical stimulation was more beneficial to matrix remodelling than the single loading motion.However,the contribution of the combined mechanical stimulation to the engineered cartilaginous tissue matrix was not sufficient to impede biodegradation of the tissue with culture time.

Bionic Design and Simulation Analysis of Energy⁃Efficient and Vibration⁃Damping Walking Mechanism

African ostrich can run for 30 min at a speed of 60 km/h in the desert,and its hindlimb has excellent energy saving and vibration damping performance.In order to realize the energy⁃efficient and vibration⁃damping design of the leg mechanism of the legged robot,the principle of engineering bionics was applied.According to the passive rebound characteristic of the intertarsal joint of the ostrich foot and the characteristic of variable output stiffness of the ostrich hindlimb,combined with the proportion and size of the structure of the ostrich hindlimb,the bionic rigid⁃flexible composite legged robot single⁃leg structure was designed.The locomotion of the bionic mechanical leg was simulated by means of ADAMS.Through the motion simulation analysis,the influence of the change of the inner spring stiffness coefficient within a certain range on the vertical acceleration of the body centroid and the motor power consumption was studied,and the optimal stiffness coefficient of the inner spring was obtained to be 200 N/mm,and it was further verified that the inner and outer spring mechanism could effectively reduce the energy consumption of the mechanical leg.Simulation results show that the inner and outer spring mechanism could effectively reduce the motor energy consumption by about 72.49%.

Active Vibration Isolation of Micro-Manufacturing Platform Based on Neural Network

The micromation and precision of the Micro-Electromechanical System demand that its manufacturing, measuring and assembling must work in a micro-manufacturing platform with good ability to isolate vibrations. This paper develops a vibration isolation system of micro-manufacturing platform. The brains of many kinds of birds can isolate vibrations well, such as woodpecker’s brain. When a woodpecker pecks the wood at the speed as 1.6 times as the velocity of sound, its brain will tolerate the wallop 1 500 times of the weight of itself without any damage. The isolation mechanics and organic texture of woodpecker’s brain that has good isolation characteristics were studied. A structure model of vibration isolation system for the micro-manufacturing platform is established based on the bionics of the bird’s brain vibration isolation mechanism. In order to isolate effectively the high frequency vibrations from the ground, a rubber layer is used to isolate vibrations passively between the micro-manufacturing platform’s pedestal and the ground. This layer corresponds to the cartilage and muscles in the outer meninges of the bird’s brain. The active vibration isolation technique is adopted to isolate vibrations between the micro-manufacturing platform and the pedestal. Air springs are used as elastic components, which correspond to the interspaces between the outer meninges and the encephala of the bird’s brain. Actuators are made of giant magnetostrictive material, and it corresponds to the nerves and neural muscles linking the meninges and the encephala. The actuators and air springs are arranged vertically in parallel to make use of the giant magnetostrictive actuators effectively. The air springs support almost all weight of the micro-manufacturing platform and the giant magnetostrictive actuators support almost no weight. In order to realize high performance to isolate complex micro-vibration, the control method using a three-layer neural network is presented. This vibration control system takes into account the floor disturbance and the direct disturbance acting on the micro-manufacturing platform. The absolute acceleration of the micro-manufacturing platform is used as the performance index of vibration control. The performance of the control system is tested by numerical simulation. Simulation results show that the active vibration isolation system has good isolation performance against the floor disturbance and the direct disturbance acting on the micro-manufacturing platform in all the frequency range.

Adaptive Multi-Objective Optimization of Bionic Shoulder Joint Based on Particle Swarm Optimization

To get the movement mode and driving mechanism similar to human shoulder joint,a six degrees of freedom(DOF) serial-parallel bionic shoulder joint mechanism driven by pneumatic muscle actuators(PMAs)was designed.However,the structural parameters of the shoulder joint will affect various performances of the mechanism.To obtain the optimal structure parameters,the particle swarm optimization(PSO) was used.Besides,the mathematical expressions of indexes of rotation ranges,maximum bearing torque,discrete dexterity and muscle shrinkage of the bionic shoulder joint were established respectively to represent its many-sided characteristics.And the multi-objective optimization problem was transformed into a single-objective optimization problem by using the weighted-sum method.The normalization method and adaptive-weight method were used to determine each optimization index's weight coefficient;then the particle swarm optimization was used to optimize the integrated objective function of the bionic shoulder joint and the optimal solution was obtained.Compared with the average optimization generations and the optimal target values of many experiments,using adaptive-weight method to adjust weights of integrated objective function is better than using normalization method,which validates superiority of the adaptive-weight method.

Bionic Muscle Control with Adaptive Stiffness for Bionic Parallel Mechanism

As the torso is critical to the coordinated movement and flexibility of vertebrates,a 6-(Degree of Freedom)DOF bionic parallel torso with noteworthy motion space was designed in our previous work.To improve the compliance of the parallel mechanism,a pair of virtual muscle models is constructed on both sides of the rotating joints of each link of the mechanism,and a bionic muscle control algorithm is introduced.By analyzing the control parameters of the muscle model,dynamic characteristics similar to those of biological muscle are obtained.An adaptive stiffness control is proposed to adaptively adjust the stiffness coefficient with the change in the external load of the parallel mechanism.The attitude closed-loop control can effectively keep the attitude angle unchanged when the position of the moving platform changes.The simulations and experiments are undertaken to validate compliant movements and the flexibility and adaptability of the parallel mechanism.

NUMERICAL STUDIES ON THE PROPULSION AND WAKE STRUCTURES OF FINITE-SPAN FLAPPING WINGS WITH DIFFERENT ASPECT RATIOS

An immersed-boundary method is used to investigate the flapping wings with different aspect ratios ranging from 1 to 5.The numerical results on wake structures and the performance of the propulsion are given.Unlike the case of the two-dimensional flapping foil,the wing-tip vortices appear for the flow past a three-dimensional flapping wing,which makes the wake vortex structures much different.The results show that the leading edge vortex merges into the trailing edge vortex,connects with the wing tip vortices and then sheds from the wing.A vortex ring forms in the wake,and exhibits different patterns for different foil aspect ratios.Analysis of hydrodynamic performances shows that both thrust coefficient and efficiency of the flapping wing increase with increasing aspect ratio.

The Role of Soft Vein Joints in Dragonfly Flight

Dragonflies are excellent flyers among insects and their flight ability is closely related to the architecture and material properties of their wings. The veins are main structure components of a dragonfly wing, which are found to be connected by resilin with high elasticity at some joints. A three-dimensional （3D） finite element model of dragonfly wing considering the soft vein joints is developed, with some simplifications. Passive deformation under aerodynamic loads and active flapping motion of the wing are both studied. The functions of soft vein joints in dragonfly flight are concluded. In passive deformation, the chordwise flexibility is improved by soft vein joints and the wing is cambered under loads, increasing the action area with air. In active flapping, the wing rigidity in spanwise direction is maintained to achieve the required amplitude. As a result, both the passive deformation and the active control of flapping work well in dragonfly flight. The present study may also inspire the design of biomimetic Flapping Micro Air Vehicles （FMAVs）.

A Novel Undulatory Propulsion Strategy for Underwater Robots

Stingrays can undulate their wide pectoral fins to thrust themselves and swim freely underwater.Many researchers have used bionics to directly imitate their undulating mechanism and manufacture undulatory underwater robots.Based on the limitations of the existing undulatory underwater robots,this paper proposes a novel undulatory propulsion strategy,which aims to use the stingray undulating mechanism more thoroughly.First,the mathematical models of both traditional and novel structures are established to accurately describe their undulating mechanism.Then,based on the dynamic mesh technology,the flow field vortex structure they generated is analyzed through fluid-structure interaction simulation,and the thrust force and lateral force generated by them are calculated,which verified that this novel propulsion strategy is indeed more effective.Finally,a prototype robot based on the improved propulsion strategy is manufactured.Compared with the existing stingray robots,the prototype has obvious advantages,thus verifying the accuracy of the simulation results.