Adhesion Test And Motion Simulation Analysis In Simulated Space Environment Of Gecko Mimicking Robot Based On Van Der Waals' Force

The gecko mimicking robot that has advantages of low-cost, wide motive range and intelligent design could assist astronauts to finish the maintenance and exploration missions in the future. Unlike the mechanical arm, it could do some precise operations both inside and outside of the spacecraft, which has important signification and extensive application in aerospace.This paper first summarized the relation between pose angle of the sole and gait trajectory, which has a great impact on the adhesive reliability of the robot and the design of the passive joints; then the developmet of single-leg force measuring equipment was introduced, which is used to test the adhesion and peeling force of the single leg in atmosphere, vacuum and high temperature environment respectively; at last, the motion of the robot in weightless environment was analyzed through simulation software.The main work and production of the paper are as follows:The pose angle of the sole during locomotion was analyzed, and was decomposed into rotation and flipping angles. The one-to-one correspondence between the pose angle and gait trajectory during the force tests of normal attching, shear attching and detaching was analyzed. Those above can be used as important reference for gait planning and precise control.The gait parameters which affect material properties were analyzed and optimized, meeting the needs of strong adhesion and easy peeling performance. The adhesion and peeling force of the single leg in vacuum and high temperature environment were recorded using a force measuring platform. It was concluded that there is almost no difference in material properties between vacuum and atmosphere environment, and with the increase of temperature, the properties were slightly affected by surface energy and Young modulus.The body model and flexible sole model were designed using ADAMS and ANSYS. Through the analysis of contact mechanics, the elastic modulus of the sole was selected, also the contact speed was optimized. Also the gravity parameter was set up in the simulation software. by observing the displacement of body, joint angular velocity, output torque and contact force, we concluded that the effects on the motion of the robot in weightlessness environment.