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Single actuator wave-like robot (SAW): design, modeling, and experiments

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2016 Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 046004
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Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

doi:10.1088/1748-3190/11/4/046004

PAPER

RECEIVED

24 January 2016

Single actuator wave-like robot (SAW): design, modeling, and

experiments*

REVISED

13 May 2016
ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

David Zarrouk, Moshe Mann, Nir Degani, Tal Yehuda, Nissan Jarbi and Amotz Hess

7 June 2016

Mechanical Engineering Department of Ben Gurion University PO Box 653 Beer Sheva 8855630, Israel

PUBLISHED

E-mail: zadavid@bgu.ac.il

1 July 2016

Keywords: crawling robot, wave like locomotion, minimally actuated, design

Supplementary material for this article is available online

Abstract
In this paper, we present a single actuator wave-like robot, a novel bioinspired robot which can move
forward or backward by producing a continuously advancing wave. The robot has a unique
minimalistic mechanical design and produces an advancing sine wave, with a large amplitude, using
only a single motor but with no internal straight spine. Over horizontal surfaces, the robot does not
slide relative to the surface and its direction of locomotion is determined by the direction of rotation of
the motor. We developed a kinematic model of the robot that accounts for the two-dimensional
mechanics of motion and yields the speed of the links relative to the motor. Based on the optimization
of the kinematic model, and accounting for the mechanical constraints, we have designed and built
multiple versions of the robot with different sizes and experimentally tested them (see movie). The
experimental results were within a few percentages of the expectations. The larger version attained a
top speed of 57 cm s1 over a horizontal surface and is capable of climbing vertically when placed
between two walls. By optimizing the parameters, we succeeded in making the robot travel by 13%
faster than its own wave speed.

1. Introduction
In the last decades, multiple studies have analyzed the
locomotion of crawling robots inside tubes for maintenance purposes and in biological vessels for medical
applications. In many of those applications, the robots
must overcome rough terrain characterized by anisotropic properties, high exibility, varying dimensions,
and low friction coefcients [14]. A key element in
the design of small crawling robot is a minimalist
approach, i.e. small number of motors and controllers,
which allows for miniaturization. Two main locomotion patterns have been investigated: worm-like locomotion [525] and undulating locomotion which
resembles a continuously advancing wave [2642].
Worm-like robots advance by changing the distance
between their links [525]. There are two types of
worm-like robots; inchworm-like robots and earthworm-like robots. Inchworm-like robots [515] are

* This research was partially supported by the Helmsley Charitable

Trust through the Agricultural, Biological and Cognitive Robotics
Initiative of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

2016 IOP Publishing Ltd

generally made of two cells (sometimes three as in

[15]) tted with clamps to increase or decrease the
friction forces by changing the normal forces or the
coefcients of friction. Earthworm-like robots [16
23] are made of a larger number of cells, often four or
more. Multiple mechanisms of locomotion were
developed using magnet coils [18], shape memory
alloys [16], an external electromagnetic eld [19, 20]
and inatable cells [22]. Using the inatable cells
approach, Glozman et al [23] applied one actuator and
a single air/water source to drive an inatable worm
made of multiple elastic cells inside the intestines of a
swine. Novel designs of inchworm-like and earthworm-like robots actuated by a single motor were
developed by Zarrouk et al [24, 25]. This minimalist
design allowed us to reduce the size, weight, energy
consumption, and to increase the reliability of the
robot.
Wave-like locomotion was successfully produced
by hyper redundant snake robots [2633] only (even
though, kinematically speaking a single actuator is
required). The rst documented attempt to produce

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 1. The novel single actuator wave like robot (SAW). The robots have a spine that constrains the links to move around it,
producing an advancing wave like motion (see movie).

wave like locomotion dates back to the 1920s by artist

Pyotr (Petr) Miturich [41] who suggested a design
comprising of an assembly of gears. But nearly 30 years
later the problem remained unsolved. Taylor et al
[35, 36], who investigated the locomotion of wave-like
and spiral-like locomotion in low Reynolds environment, expressed his inability to develop a mechanism
that will allow to produce a helix motion in order to
experimentally validate his analysis. More recently,
some progress was reported by producing cyclic
motion with a small number of actuators which to a
certain extent resembles a wave but is actually a rigid
straight spine with changing width [3740]. Other
attempts included producing a wave by vibrating a rod
[41, 42], but this method results in relatively small
amplitudes whose size is a function of the damping.
Inspired by wave-like locomotion of snakes and
agella swimming of miniature organisms, we present
in this paper that produces a nearly perfect wave actuated by a single motor which we name SAW (single
actuator wave-like robot) that is presented in gure 1.
SAWs locomotion principle differs from snakes by
such that it does not slide and that it does not have anisotropic coefcient of friction (COF) but can still over
a variety of surfaces and climb over obstacles. In
section 2, we describe the kinematics of the wave locomotion. In section 3, we present our novel design for
the wave-like robot and model its kinematics in
section 4. The kinematical model was used to optimize
the design of the robot. Finally, experiments performed with the robots which we built are presented in
section 5.

2. Kinematics of a traveling wave and

comparison to rotating helix
In this section, we show that the projection of a
rotating helix forms an advancing sine wave.
2

2.1. Traveling wave

The simplest model of traveling wave is an advancing
sine wave, or harmonic wave. Its mathematical
presentation is
y (x , t ) = A sin (kx - wt ) ,

(1)

where x is the space coordinate, t is the time, y is the

height of the wave at point x and time t, and A is the
amplitude. The angular velocity w of the wave is
related to the frequency by
w
f=
(2)
2p
and the wave length L of the traveling wave is related to
the wave number by
2p
.
k
The traveling speed of the wave is thus
w
Vwave = f L = .
k
L=

(3)

(4)

2.2. Mathematical model of helix and its projection

A helical curve with its axis in the x direction is
described parametrically by
L
a,
2p
y = A sin (a) ,
z = A cos (a) ,
x=

(5)

where L is the length of the pitch and A is the radius of

the helix and a is the independent parameter. The twodimensional projection of the helix on the XY plane
(z = 0) yields the following sine function:
x=

L
a,
2p

y = A sin (a) = A sin

2px
L

( )

(6)

A 3D helix whose axis is parallel to the x direction and

its 2D projection on the XY plane are presented in

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 2. A helix and its projection on the XY plane. The projection of the helix is a sine wave, where the amplitude is the radius of the
pitch.

Figure 3. The different parts of the robot. The robot has a housing for the motor. The helix is attached to the motor and rotates relative
to the housing. The links are attached to the housing and do not undergo roll rotation.

gure 2. Its projection is a sine wave, as seen from

equation (6).

2.3. Rotating helix and comparison to traveling wave

When the helix rotates around its axis (the x axis) at a
constant angular frequency w (counterclockwise) the
parametric equations of the helix (equation (5)) are
multiplied by the rotation matrix around the x axis:
x (a , t )
1
L a 2p
0
0

y (a , t ) = 0 cos (wt ) - sin (wt ) A sin (a)

0 sin (wt ) cos (wt ) A cos (a)
z (a , t )

L a 2p

= A sin (a - wt ) .
A cos (a - wt )
(7)

Inserting a = 2/L*x into y demonstrates that the

projection of the rotating helix is an advancing sine
wave given by:
3

2p

y = A sin x - wt .
L

(8)

3. Robot design
In the previous section, we showed that the projection
of a rotating helix is an advancing sine wave. Our robot
design, which uses a single motor to produce an
advancing wave, follows the same concept. The robot
is composed of four main parts: the motor house, the
motor, the helix, and the series of links (gure 3). The
motor is attached to the motor housing from one side
and to the helix from the other side. The links are
attached to the motor house. As the motor rotates the
helix, the links cancel the rotation along the axis of the
helix and maintain the vertical motion. In this way, the
links act as a 2D projection of the helix of the robot.
The helix of the larger version is nearly 25 cm long
and is composed of two windings and a short extension to reduce its diameter. Its external diameter is
5.2 cm and its radius is A = 2.1 cm (diameter of the
wire is 10 mm). The links, presented in gure 4, are

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 4. The geometry of the link. The two main parameters are the link length Llink, the distance between two adjacent joint, r is the
height of the link and wtip is the width of the tip.

7 cm wide 1.83 cm high (r = 0.915 cm), and the distance between the joints of two links is 1.2 cm
(Llink = 1.2 cm). There is a 3 mm gap between the link
and the helix. The smaller version is scaled down by a
factor of nearly 1:2 and the smallest is scaled down by a
factor of 1:3. The helix and the links are 3D printed.
The robot is tted with a 6 V, 12 mm motor with 1:300
gear ratio. Based on its catalog specications, the
motors and gearbox produce a torque of 2.9 Kg cm at
45 rpm. It is noted that in most of the experiments
(except when specied otherwise), we used a single
4 V lithium-ion battery which is substantially lower
than its nominal input (69 V). The total weight of the
larger robot including one battery is 188 g, whereas the
smaller one weighed only 47 g.

4. Kinematics analysis
In this section, we model the kinematics of the links
and calculate their speed relative to the head of the
robot (motor housing) as a function of the frequency
of locomotion f, the wave length Lwave, the amplitude
of the wave A, the length of the link Llink, and its height
r. If the links do not slide over the surface, (as we
experimentally found in section 5gure 10), the
speed of the robot will be equal to the horizontal speed
of the tips. We dene the advance ratio (AR) as the
speed of the robot Vrobot divided by the speed of the
traveling wave relative to the motor base Vwave
AR =

L cycle
Vrobot
=
,
Vwave
L wave

(9)

where Vrobot is the speed of the robot, Lwave is the

length of the wave, and Lcycle is the net advance per
cycle (one rotation of the helix)
Vrobot = f L cycle .

(10)

4.1. Kinematics of the links

During the motion, the links move both horizontally
and vertically. As the wave advances by x, the link
4

will rotate by (see gure 5).

Da

a tan (A cos (kx ))

dx

= a tan ( - kA sin (kDx )).

=

(x =Dx )

(11)

Due to this rotation, the tip of the link will move

horizontally by a distance X:
DX = r sin (Da) .

(12)

If the speed of the wave is Vwave, the time required by

the wave to advance by a distance of x is:
Dt = Dx Vwave.

(13)

Therefore the expected speed of the link is:

DX
.
(14)
Dt
Inserting equations (11)(13) into (14) we obtain the
speed of the tip of the link:
Vlink =

r sin (a tan ( - kA sin (kDx )))

Vwave.
Dx
If we assume small angles Da 1 then:
Vlink =

sin (kDx ) kDx ,

Da 1
a tan (Ak 2Dx ) Ak 2Dx .

(15)

(16)

And nally, by inserting equation (16) into (15), one

obtains the speed of the tips of the links as a function of
the height r, amplitude A, wave length Lwave, and wave
speed Vwave

2p 2
Vlink rAk 2Vwave = rA
Vwave.
L wave

(17)

Alternatively, the speed of the wave can be calculated

as a function of the actuation frequency:

Vlink rAk 2Vwave = (2p )2

A
r f.
L wave

(18)

Therefore the speed of the link is proportional to the

ratio of the amplitude divided by the wave length A/
Lwave, to the height of the links r and to the actuation
frequency f. In theory, it would be advantageous to
increase A/Lwave and r to increase the speed. However,
increasing those values results in collision between the
tips of neighboring links. This collision is most likely

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 5. The rotation of the links during the adavnce of the wave. A marks the beignning of the touchdown of link i and retraction of
link i 1. In B, the wave has advanced by x and link i is at the lowest point of the wave. C, which occurs after the wave advances by
a further x, marks the end of the touching of link i and the beginning of the engagement of i + 1.

to occur when two links are symmetrically oriented

towards each-other such as links i 1 and i in gure 5
case A. Assuming zero width of the tips of the links,
collision will occur when;
L
2
atan link = Da .
r

(19)

Inserting the value of into from equation (11) into

(19), it is possible to obtain the condition of collision
as a function of the size of the links and the wave
parameters

Llink 2
Llink

2
2

- kA sin k
0.5
2

link
2
r +

(20)

4.2. Simulating the kinematics of the links

We assume that the links slide along the advancing
wave (rotating helix) while the rst link is attached to
the motor housing. The number of links is determined
by the length of the wave Ltot divided by the length of
the links

L tot = N

0.5

d
2
1 + y ( x ) dx ,
dx

(21)

where N is the number of waves in the sine function

(N = 2 in our robot). To calculate the positions of all
5

the links of the robot, we sequentially solve for the

location of the endpoint of each link along the sine
wave. That is, we start with the location of the joint i of
link [xi yi] and solve for the x coordinate of the links
endpoint [xi+1 yi+1] by assuming that it is fastened to
the sine wave using the equation:
(x i + 1 - x i )2 + (A sin (kx i + 1 - wt ) - yi )2 = Llink 2,
(22)

where Llink is the length of each link. Solving

equation (22) returns the position of the end point xi+1
of link i. The endpoint of link i serves as the start
point of link i + 1, and so on until the last links
location is solved for. The location of each links start
point and end point provides complete information of
the links orientation, and is used to calculate the
location of the links tip [x_tipi y_tipi]:

x _tipi
x i+1 - x i
xi

yi + 1 yi + 1 - yi
=
y
_tip
i

0
2
0
0
x i+ 1 - x i 0
+ yi + 1 - yi 0 r .

1
0

(23)

The position of the links when the motor housing is

xed was simulated using MATLAB (2013).
Equations (22) and (23) were solved at a rate of 500
times per cycle (results and optimization are summarized in gure 7 and in table 1). The velocity is obtained

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Table 1. The advance ratio obtained from the Optitrack.

Lwave
(cm)

A/
Lwave

r/Lwave

Aver. AR
Lcycle/
Lwave

STD AR

AR/
Lcycle

1.7%
1.7%
4.3%

2%
5%
2%

7.7%
4.4%

8%
8%

Large SAW
10.4
10
10.4

0.2
0.1
0.2

0.088
0.092
0.168

0.71
0.33
1.13

Small SAW
5
5

0.2
0.1

0.092
0.092

0.76
0.38

by deriving the position as a function of the time. In

the simulation, we also accounted for the width of
the tip of the link, since in practice, the width must
be a few millimeters (in the simulation, we used
wtip = 0.05 Lwave).
A two-dimensional side projection of the simulated robot is shown in gure 6. The robot consists of
25 rigid links connected through revolute joints
formed into a sine wave of two spatial cycles. We focus
here on the motion of link 5. As link 5 approaches the
lower bottom of the wave, it moves slightly horizontally and rotates clockwise. Both of these motions add
up to move the bottom tip to the left, and therefore the
robot would move to the right.
4.3. Expected robot advancement speed
The simulation allowed us to visually gain insights into
the motion of the links and optimize the design of the

robot. If no sliding occurs, the speed of the robot will

be equal (but to the opposite direction) to the
horizontal speed of the links contacting the surface.
Therefore, the simulation calculates the position of the
different links at all times and detects which of the
links is the lowest, i.e. expected to be in contact with
the ground. Averaging the speed of the lowest tips
yields the expected speed of the robot.
In gure 7, we present the AR as a function of the
amplitude for three different values of links heights (r/
Lwave) 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2. For larger values, the links collide with each-others and a much smaller r is mechanically impractical (minimum diameter of the helix,
thickness of the links and the gaps between the links
and the helix). The collision is marked with *. By
assuming that the width of the tips is 5% of the wave
length, we found that the maximum AR is limited to
nearly 0.77 in all three cases because of the collisions
between the tips of neighboring links. The values
obtained by the simulation were a few percent different than the experimental results but were about 10%
15% lower than the approximated values obtained
from equation (18).
We note that increasing the value of the L_link may
allow to increase the value of r but the links become
loose and the helix will contact the surface.

5. Experiments
In section 4, we calculated the speed of the links as a
function of the different robot parameters such as the
length of the wave, the distance between the links, and

Figure 6. The simulation of the robot. The motor housing is rigidly xed. As the wave adavances from right to left, the lower tips of
the links which will be in contact with the surface move slightly towards the left and rotate clockwise.

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 7. The advance ratio (AR) as a function of the amplitude for three different heights. The asterix (*) marks the limit for which
two neighboring links will collide with each others.

Figure 8. A special link was manufactured to hold the reective marker. The center of the reective is along the axis of the tip of the
link.

their width. In this section, we experimentally measure

the speed of our 3D printed robot and compare it to
the results of the simulation. The position of the robot
is measured using a 12 cameras Optitrack setup with a
frequency of 120 Hz. The accuracy of the system is
nearly 0.1 mm. We designed a special link for holding
the reective marker at the lower tip of the link
(gure 8). The special link has a side attachment for
the marker in which the center of the marker is on the
axis of the contact line with the surface. Using this link,
the marker remained on the side of the surface and
would not interfere with the experiment. The speed is
determined by deriving the position as a function of
the time.
5.1. Speed of the links
In our rst experiment, we determined the trajectory
of the lower tip of one of the links (using the special
link) when the robot motor house was rigidly xed.
The trajectory and the orientation of the tip of 8 cycles

Figure 9. The motion of the bottom tip of the link during 8

cycles when the robot is not moving. The arrow show the
direction of motion.

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 10. (Top) The position of the lowest tip of a link during horizontal locomotion over alumium surface. The single point contact
at each cycle proves that no sliding occured between the links and the surface. (Bottom) The horizontal speed of the links.

are presented in gure 9. The motion is very cyclic with

very little difference between one cycle and another.
During a cycle, the tip moves vertically by nearly 4 cm.
This result is slightly less than expected (2*A = 4.2 cm)
and probably due to slight spacing between the links
and the helix (about two millimeters from each side).
The horizontal motion is nearly 2 cm. However, the
motion of the link from the onset of contact until
disconnecting from the surface is nearly 1 cm.
In the second experiment, the robot was free to
advance and the position of the links was measured
using the Optitrack setup. We performed the experiments over plywood and over aluminum which has a
lower COF with the links (nearly 0.3 whereas the COF
over plywood is nearly 0.4). The results of the trajectory and the speed along the x axis are presented in
gure 10 (over aluminum surface). The trajectory
shows that the link touches the surfaces at a single contact point. Therefore the link is not sliding over the
surface and its relative speed to the surface is zero.
Sliding did not occur also when the robot was run at
higher speeds (to slide, the acceleration must be more
than 3 m s2 which is gravity*COF). Furthermore, the
links do not appear to losing contact with the surface
due to inertial effects.
Table 1, summarizes the results of multiple experiments that we performed with the bigger version and
the smaller version (1:2) of the robot. The data is the
average of at least 12 cycles. The results were compared
to the simulations and found to be within a few
percentage of each-others. The larger and smaller versions performed nearly similarly for two different
amplitude to wave length ratios (A/Lwave). Following
the predictions of the simulation, we designed special
links with larger r that allowed the robot to advance by
13% faster than the speed of the wave (AR = 1.13).
(See section 5.4 on how we managed to overcome this
limitation.) We note here that to the best of our
knowledge, traveling faster than the speed of the wave

(which at rst glance may appear impossible), has

never been previously reported in literature.
The energy requirement for crawling was measured.
Using 8 V input, the robot consumed 0.18 A current
and crawled at about 15 cm s1. Based on those results,
the cost of transport of SAW (dened as the input power
divided by the weight times the speed) is 3.8.
5.2. High speeds
We performed multiple experiments to increase the
speed of the robot by increasing the power, lowering
the gear ratio (1:100), and increasing the voltage. We
measured the average speed of the robot from a two
second run using the Optitrack. When powered with a
12 V inputs, the robot traveled at 57 cm s1 or 5.6
wave lengths per second. It is noted that even at high
speed no sliding is believed to have occurred during
the steady state as the AR was 0.75 which is similar to
the AR at the lower speed experiments. Furthermore,
the robot did not lose contact with the surface due to
centrifugal accelerations since the center of mass of the
wave is (theoretically) on the axis of the helix. We did
nd some sliding during the acceleration stage which
occurred during the rst 3 cycles. The efciency of
locomotion which we dene as the actual advance in a
cycle divided by the advance in the steady state was
0.23, 0.65 and 0.8 respectively for the rst, second and
third cycles .
5.3. Crawling over slopes and vertically between
walls
We also the tested ability of the robot to climb by
placing the robot between two layers of polyurethane
foam whose COF with the links of the robot is nearly
0.4. The robot was powered by two Litium ion battery
(as it was not able to move using a single one) and
climbed at a speed of 8.2 cm s1. The experiment is
presented in gure 11. Note that in this experiment,
the two walls must be precisely distanced from each
other (up to a few millimeters of accuracy) in order to

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 11. The robot climbing vertically between two walls. Using 8 V input, the robot reached a speed of 8.2 cm s1.

Figure 12. The specially designed links that do not collide with each others.

Figure 13. Experimental results with the larger tips. The distances are normalized by the wave length.

achieve enough normal force for climbing, but without overly pressing on the robot as it will stall.
5.4. Increasing the height to travel faster than the
speed of the wave
To increase the speed of the robot beyond the speed of
the wave, we developed three sets of links with
9

different tips which do not collide with each-others

(see gure 12). The length of the link Llink is 1.4 cm and
the height r is 1.75 cm.
Using those links, the robot achieved a speed
which is 13% larger than the wave speed. The results of
one of the experiments are presented in gure 13. In
nearly 6 cycles, the robot advances by 7 wave lengths.

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 14. The smallest version of the robot. The length is nearly 12 cm and the width is about 3 cm.

Figure 15. The robot with steering wheels. The direction of turning is controlled by a second motor.

5.5. Miniaturization
The single motor design allows for further miniaturization of the robot. Our smallest version (gure 14) is
12 cm long and 3 cm wide and weighs 30 g including
the motor and battery. It crawled at nearly 8 cm s1
(see movie). Further miniaturization of the robot is
possible and depends on more precise manufacturing.

5.6. Turning using steering wheels

We added steering wheels to the front of the robot as
seen in gure 15. The robot is now controlled using a
two channel joystick (extracted from an RC toy car see movie). We performed multiple experiment in
crawling straight and turning and captured the position of the motor house using our Optitrack set up.
The results show that the robot can turn to either
direction and that the radius of turning was
nearly 0.3 m.

10

Figure 16. The position of the motor house of the robot with
steering wheels. The robot wrote his name.

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

Figure 17. The robot climbing over obstacles.

The results are presented in gure 16 in which the

name of the robot is written (SAW). All the letters were
completed in a single run with no external intervention.
5.7. Crawling over obstacles
In order to prove the robots ability to crawl over
challenging terrain, we tested in climbing over multiple obstacles. One of those obstacles, composed of two
8 cm high rises is presented in gure 17. The surface is
made of carpet to ensure high COF and the robot was
capable of repeatedly overcoming this double obstacle.
A second experiment in climbing over a larger obstacle
is presented in the attached movie.

6. Conclusion
In this article, we developed a novel robot which
generates an advancing wave that is nearly identical to
a sine wave by rotating a helix that moves the links.
This type of locomotion is inspired by the wave-like
locomotion of snake and agellar swimming but,
mechanically speaking, is different than snakes since it
does not slide relative to the ground and that it does
not have an anisotropic COF (the robot can change its
direction of motion by simply changing the wave
motion). The robot design is simple, lightweight,
11

cheap, and requires only a single motor to produce the

wave. The direction of wave propagation is determined by the sign of the voltage being applied to the
motor. We developed three prototypes: the larger one
with a wave length of 10 cm weighs only 188 g, a 1:2
smaller version weighing 47 g and a 1:3 version
weighing 30 g. All prototypes proved to be relatively
reliable (considering that they are 3D printed prototypes). During all of our experiments, almost no
maintenance was required.
We studied the kinematics of the links and developed a simple model that explains how the motion is
produced. The model also predicts the approximated
speed of the lower tips of the links as a function of the
wave length and amplitude and size of the links. We
also developed a simulation which calculates the speed
of the links relative to the motor and visually presents
the locomotion and detects where collisions between
the links will occur. The simulation allowed us to
visually comprehend the locomotion mechanics and
optimize the robot. We introduced the AR as the speed
of the robot divided by the speed of the wave. We
found that in general, the AR is smaller than 1, but by
increasing the height of the links, the AR can be larger
than 1 (this result may seem physically impossible at
rst glance). By adding wheels, the robot can be

Bioinspir. Biomim. 11 (2016) 046004

D Zarrouk et al

steered with a turning radius of 0.3 m and it can crawl

over challenging terrain and climb over obstacles.
We measured the speed of the robot and the speed
of the lower tip of a link using an Optitrack system. By
measuring the speed of the lower tip of the link, we
found that it contacts the surface at a single point,
implying that sliding does not occur and that the links
do not disconnect from the surface. We performed
multiple experiments and found that they are all
within a few percentages from the expected speed by
the simulation and the cost of transport of the robot is
3.8. The experiments also proved that the robot can
advance faster than its own wave (13% in our experiments). The robot reached a top speed of 57 cm s1
and no sliding was detected even at this speed during
steady state. However, some sliding was observed during acceleration. The robot was also capable of climbing vertically when nely placed between two surfaces
polyurethane foam at a speed of 8.2 cm s1. Our
future work will focus on analyzing the locomotion of
this type of robots over compliant and slippery surfaces and designing swimming robots. For that purpose, we are considering the possibility of designing a
variable gait system which allows to change the amplitude and wave length, therefore allowing the robot to
optimize its energy efciency and crawling performance over different surfaces.

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