Model Study Of Snail Motion On The Surface Of Granular Media

This paper proposes a novel locomotion model of robot on granular media named snail-like locomotion.The robot move stably with the interaction between the wavelike underside and the granules.Firstly,this model is simulated with the Discrete Element method.The results shown that the robot can rapidly become a stable state,and the direction of the velocity is opposite to what of the wave velocity.Moreover,the value of the velocity is a linear relationship with the value of wave velocity,and the ratio of them is related to the amplitude wavelength ratio of the underside wave.Furthermore,the pressure profile shows that the wavelike underside of the robot will be divided into two segments,i.e.impacted segments and slack segments,and the force between the robot and granules is mainly distributed in impacted segments.Secondly,based on the pressure profile of Discrete Element method simulation,this model is re-simulated using Resistive Force theory,and the results agree well with that of the DEM simulation.Finally,we found that the snail-like robot can adapt to granular media well.The robot is easy to design and control,it can move stably,and leading a promising prospects of design.