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One-DoF robotic design of overconstrained limbs with energy-efficient, self-collision-free motion
Gu, Yuping Huang, Bangchao Sun, Haoran Xu, Ronghan Yin, Jiayi Zhang, Wei Wan, Fang Pan, Jia Song, Chaoyang
Gu, Yuping
Huang, Bangchao
Sun, Haoran
Xu, Ronghan
Yin, Jiayi
Zhang, Wei
Wan, Fang
Pan, Jia
Song, Chaoyang
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Department
Robotics
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Type
Journal article
Date
2025
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Language
English
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Abstract
While it is expected to build robotic limbs with multiple degrees of freedom (DoF) inspired by nature, a single DoF design remains fundamental, providing benefits that include, but are not limited to, simplicity, robustness, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. Mechanisms, especially those with multiple links and revolute joints connected in closed loops, play an enabling factor in introducing motion diversity for 1-DoF systems, which are usually constrained by self-collision during a full-cycle range of motion. This study presents a novel computational approach to designing one-degree-of-freedom (1-DoF) overconstrained robotic limbs for a desired spatial trajectory, while achieving energy-efficient, self-collision-free motion in full-cycle rotations. Firstly, we present the geometric optimization problem of linkage-based robotic limbs in a generalized formulation for self-collision-free design. Next, we formulate the spatial trajectory generation problem with the overconstrained linkages by optimizing the similarity and dynamic-related metrics. We further optimize the geometric shape of the overconstrained linkage to ensure smooth and collision-free motion driven by a single actuator. We validated our proposed method through various experiments, including personalized automata and bio-inspired hexapod robots. The resulting hexapod robot, featuring overconstrained robotic limbs, demonstrated outstanding energy efficiency during forward walking.
Citation
Y. Gu et al., “One-DoF robotic design of overconstrained limbs with energy-efficient, self-collision-free motion,” Fundamental Research, Oct. 2025, doi: 10.1016/J.FMRE.2025.09.023
Source
Fundamental Research
Conference
Keywords
Collision avoidance, Computational design, Legged locomotion, Mechanism synthesis, Overconstrained robotics
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Source
Publisher
Elsevier