Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE

International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation

August 5 - 8, 2007, Harbin, China

Analysis on Dynamics for Flexible Leg of ICPF Actuated

Tortoise-like Micro-robot
Lin NieDQG Desheng Li Shuxiang Guo
School of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Electronics
Department of Intelligent Mechanical Systems Engineering
Technology
Beijing University of Technology Kagawa University
Pingleyuan100, Beijing, China Kagawa, Japan
dsli@bjut.edu.cn guo@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp

Abstract - In the paper, we present a novel tortoise-like flexible
micro-robot with four legs which can crawl and swim
underwater. These legs are actuated by ICPF (Ionic Conducting
Polymer Film) which is a kind of smart film and has the
characteristics of flexibility, good response and being driven by a
low voltage. For analyzing the characters of the robot and
improving the reliability and feasibility of the robot, we establish
the dynamic model of the micro-robot by applying Pseudo-Rigid-
Body-Dynamic-Model (PRBDM). The model is established by
considering the dynamic effect of the robot, which is based on
statics and kinematics. Then, the frequency analysis of the micro-
robot based on PRBDM is investigated. Based on the PRBDM,
the relation between the structure parameters and the natural
frequency of the leg is theoretically derived and some analysis
and experiment graphs about the angle displacement of the leg
are performed.
Index Terms - Pseudo-Rigid-Body-Dynamic-Model (PRBDM),
ICPF (Ionic Conducting Polymer Film), Natural frequency,
Tortoise-like flexible Micro-robot
low voltage (about 1.5V) in wet condition without
electrolysis, safety in body and so on [2].
According to the article [7], [8], we know that ICPF
contains the sodium ions and the sulfonic groups. In water, the
sodium ions are ionized from the sulfonic groups. Voltage
applied on ICPF yields an electric field through the
membrane. Sodium ions migrate from the anode to the
cathode by electrostatic force and balance against negative
charge. On the other side, the sulfonic acid groups are fixed to
the high polymer chain and cannot migrate in the membrane.
So, this makes the membrane bend by the electrostatic force,
generating internal stress that expands the gel near the anode
as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. Because ICPF has the
advantages and functions mentioned above, a novel tortoise-
like micro-robot driven by the ICPF is designed in the paper.

I. INTRODUCTION
The development of bio-robots has become a major 6R GL XP
L RQ
interest among the researchers all over the world.
Furthermore, more and more research groups have been
working on the investigation of the micro-robots which are
designed for imitating all kinds of creatures such as a cricket
[1], a fish [2], [3] and so on. The micro bio-robots have been
manufactured for various purposes, for example, for diagnosis
and microsurgery of blood vessel in the medical practice, for Fig. 1 ICPF bending mechanism
in-pipe inspection and maintain in the nuclear factory.
So far, several types of micro-robot driven by the different
actuators have been reported. Guo [2], [3], [4] developed the
fish-like robots actuated by ICPF. Zhong’s research group had
been working on the development of a robot actuated by PZT
[5], [6]. A novel micro-robot actuated by ICPF is presented in
the paper, which can not only swim in the water, but also
crawl underwater.

II. MECHANISM OF ICPF

The ICPF is the abbreviation of Ionic Conducting
Polymer gel Film which can be used in many practical fields.
ICPF actuator uses the film of perfluorosulfonic acid polymer
(Nafion 117, du Pont and company) as substrate which is Fig. 2 ICPF photo
chemically penetrated on it's both sides with platinum. ICPF
actuator has many advantages such as fast response, driven by

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 III. STRUCTURE OF THE TORTOISE-LIKE MICRO-ROBOT Because the deflections of the legs are large, they may be out
of the range of linear beam deflection equations, the cantilever
A tortoise-like micro-robot consists of three segments: the
beams is assumed to be accurately modelled by two rigid links
body, tail and legs. The creature has four legs and a tail.
attached at the pin joints near the beam’s root. Springs are
Structurally, a tortoise is usually round and bilaterally
added to the pin joints because it can store the energy made by
symmetric, the left and the right sides of the body are
the elastic members’ deflection and resist to the deflection of
identical. The sprawled legs are able to absorb the sideways
the beam.
motion and help keep the centre of mass over the legs for
The location of this pseudo-rigid-body characteristic pivot
stability. Each leg has a different function. For instance, the
is measured from the robot leg’s end as a fraction of the
front leg can be used in walking and other activities such as
beam’s length, where the changed distance is cl and c is the
exploring, orientation. Its rear legs are used for pushing the
characteristic radius factor. The result cl is not only the length
body forward and sideward. If the tortoise wants to swim, its
of the pseudo-rigid-body link, but also the length of the
legs can propel the body to float and move as a fish’s fins.
robot’s legs in the PRBDM.
Inspired by tortoise, we design a tortoise-like micro-robot
Therefore, a robot’s leg with length of l, as shown in Fig. 4,
which is similar to the tortoise and have four legs actuated by
can be approximately transformed the corresponding pseudo
ICPF respectively, a square body made of foam material. The
rigid one shown in Fig. 5. The pseudo rigid leg is composed
micro-robot is 66.21mm in width, 68.62mm in length,
of a rigid-body link with length cl and a torsion spring with
12.61mm in height and 20.3g in weight. Fig. 3 shows the
constant Ki at the pin joint.
structure of the developed micro-robot.
In order to establish PRBDM of a tortoise-like micro-robot,
The designed micro-robot has four legs under its body
some dynamic parameters are proposed here for the PRBDM.
actuated by ICPF as shown in Fig. 2. The distances between
Ten dynamic torsion springs (K1, K16, K2, K26, K3, K36, K4, K46,
the two rear legs equal to the distances between the front legs
K5, K56 ) and five lumped masses (m16, m26, m36, m46, m56 ) as
and the rear ones.
shown in Fig. 2, are added in the PRBDM. The goal of the
Ҋ. MOTION MECHANISM AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS PRBDM is to create a model that is a simple mass-spring
system with lumped parameters. Generally, one lumped mass
In the process of the micro-robot walking, its three legs
and two torsion springs are needed for the dynamic
are always on the ground and only one leg is in the air. The
equivalence of one flexible leg.
projection of the centre of its gravity on the ground is always
within the support polygon, which is made by connecting the
foot-points of the supporting legs.
Now consider dynamic analysis of a walking robot. To .
simplify the analysis, the pseudo-rigid-body-dynamic-model
method are used in the paper, which is to provide a simple
/

/
method of analysing systems that undergo large, nonlinear
/
deflections and is used to model the deflection of flexible
members using rigid-body components that have equivalent
force-deflection characteristics.
ȧ
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A. The Flexible Segments of the Micro-robot are )
transformed Into the Pseudo Rigid Components
According to the theory of PRBDM [9], the robot’s
flexible legs to be discussed above are considered as the Fig. 4 The micro-robot’s flexible leg
cantilever beam with a force on the end of the beam.

P - P P

. P N .
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+ Ȯ ) Ȯ 7
% ' 6 /
/

P
F/
Ȯ . Ȯ
P *
. .
Ȯ . Ȯ ( ȧ

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Fig. 3 The micro robot transfer to the pseudo rigid system Fig. 5 The micro-robot’s pseudo rigid leg

1103
 The kinetic energy of the PRBDM system can be So, (6) can be expressed in the following form
represented by six lumped masses, m16, m26, m36, m46, m56, and
1
m6ˈ the potential energy of the system can be presented by T (MdT22 ) , M d mi 6 di2 . (7)
2
the ten dynamic springs, K1, K16, K2, K26, K3, K36, K4, K46, K5,
K56. The dynamic behaviour of the flexible leg, AB in Fig. 2, where Md expresses the generalized mass of a robot’s leg or
can be presented dynamically by the mass spring system of the tail in the PRBDM system. The generalized mass of the
PRBDM, i.e., two dynamic torsion springs, K2 at point A and robot’s leg is calculated as followed
K26 at point B, and a lumped mass, m26, at point B in Fig. 2.
Leg CD is indicated similarly as two dynamic torsion springs,
Md 0.0292 u18.362 =13.62g mm2 . (8)
K3 at point C and K36 at point D, and a lumped mass, m36, at C. Equivalence of Potential Energy
point D in Fig. 2. The leg d2, d3, d4 and d5 are the mass less According to the PRBDM theory in [9], it should be noted
links. According to the principle of dynamic equivalence [9], that the length of the pseudo-rigid-leg AB,CD,EF,GH in Fig.
[10], the kinetic energy of lumped masses, m26, m36, m46, m56, 2 d2, d3, d4, d5 are related to the length of the micro-robot’s
should be equal to that of the flexible legs AB, CD, EF and original flexible leg l because the legs’ two ends are fixed. So,
GH, respectively, and the potential energy of the dynamic we have
torsion springs, K2, K26, K3, K36, K4, K46, K5, K56 should also be
di= cl . (9)
equal to that of flexible legs AB, CD, EF and GH,
respectively. The kinetic energy of the body in Fig. 2 stays The length of the pseudo-rigid-leg for the robot is calculated
unchanged. These conditions of dynamic equivalence can be as followed
derived as shown in the following sections.
di=cl =0.85×21.6=18.36mm. (10)
B. Equivalence of Kinetic Energy It is known that [9]
For the micro-robot’s leg AB, CD, EF, GH and tail ST in
the PRBDM of Fig. 2, the dynamic equivalence of kinetic Ki cK i 0 di2 , (11)
energy can be expressed as follows where Ki is the dynamic stiffness coefficient of the spring in
1 1 1
( m i 6 v i26 ) ( m i vi2 )  ( J iTi2 ) . (1) the PRBDM, c is the characteristic radius factor (c=0.85), Ki0
2 2 2 is the common stiffness coefficient. The dynamic stiffness
Due to coefficient of the spring in the PRBDM is calculated as
1  ˈ 1  , followed
vi 6 d iT i vi d iT i (2) -3
2 2 K i =0.5735h10 . (12)
the following formula can be got
Ji Therefore, the potential energy of a robot’s leg or tail in the
m i6 mi  4 , (3) PRBDM system in Fig. 2 can be presented as follows
d i2
1
U K iTi2 . (13)
i=1ˈ2ˈ… 5. 2

where, mi and J i are the mass and the mass moment of D. Equivalence of Dynamic Model and Relations between
Nature Frequency and Parameters of Kinetic Energy
inertia of the micro-robot’s original flexible leg AB, CD, EF, d wT wT wU
( )  P  (14)
GH and tail ST in Fig. 2 ( mi =0.02g), mi 6 is the mass of the dt wT wT wT
pseudo-rigid-leg AB, CD, EF, GH and tail ST. The mass
By substituting the leg’s kinetic energy T of (6) and potential
moment of inertia of the micro-robot’s original flexible leg is
energy U of (13) into the Lagrange equation (14), the dynamic
calculated as followed
equation of a micro-robot’s leg, which is a damped single-
J i = 1 mi li2 0.02 u 21.6 =0.78gmm2.
2
(4) degree-of-freedom system shown in Fig. 5, is established as
12 12 followed
The mass of the pseudo-rigid-leg is calculated as followed
E
0 .7 8 M dT(t )  KiT (t )
A sin Zt  F , (15)
m i6 0 .0 2  4 u =0.0292g. (5) Z
1 8 .3 6 2 where T (t ) is the leg’s angle displacement, Md is the
Therefore, the kinetic energy of a robot’s leg or tail in the generalized mass of the leg, is the coefficient of viscous
PRBDM system is damping of aqueous medium, Ki is the dynamic stiffness
1 coefficient of the spring of the leg in the PRBDM.
T m i 6 d i2Ti2 . (6)
2

1104
 E
A sin Zt is the propulsive forces in the fluid, which is
Z
proportional to the applied voltage to the polymeric muscle
ICPF. E is the parameter which is obtained from the
experiment ( E =3.952h10-6 ). Z is the angular velocity of
the electrical voltage which is sine wave. F is drag force
acting on the robot in the fluid.
As known, Reynolds number describes the relation between
inertia and viscosity,
UL , (16)
Re
X
where U is velocity of the swimming object, L is the length of
an object in fluid, X is kinematics viscosity of fluid (0.01
cm2 /sec for water). The robot’s Reynolds number is
calculated as followed
0.0083 u103 u 68.62 u103 Fig. 6 The micro-robot’s leg angle displacement
Re 0.570 . (17)
0.01u104
For the micro-robot, the range of Reynolds number is 0< Re 0.0716 A
T (t ) sin(Zt  I ) ˈ (23)
<1, F drag force acting on the swimming robot calculated {Z[(1  0.05Z 2 ) 2  0.012Z 2 ]}1/ 2
based on the Low Reynolds numbers Flow theory[12] as
following where I is the phase angle of the response to the frequency of
4SU l 2 the input electrical voltage
F T(t ) , (18)
0.035Z
ln
4l

1 I (Z ) tan 1 . (24)
bh 2 1  0.05Z 2
where U is the density of the fluid ( U =1.03 g/cm3 for the The angle T ( t ) is displayed as a function of time in Fig. 6
water), l is the length of the robot’s leg (l=21.6mm), b the when the voltage is 2v and frequency Z =6rad/s, in which the
width (b=4.6mm), h the thickness(h=0.2mm). angle undergoes steadily fluctuations as time increases. In this
So, the dynamic equation of a micro-robot’s leg is regard, we observe that the angle displacement T ( t ) is
expressed in the form proportional to the electrical voltage sine wave, as expected.
4SUl 2 E
M dT(t )  T(t )  KiT (t ) A sin Zt . (19) According to the angle displacement function (23), it will
ln
4l

1 Z prove convenient to introduce the magnitude of the angle
bh 2 displacement which is the no dimensional ratio
Dividing through by Md and introducing the notations as 1
following: | G (iZ ) | , (25)
{Z[(1  0.05Z 2 )2  0.012Z 2 ]}1/ 2
4SU l 2 , Zn2
Ki
, Zn2G
E A , (20) where G (iZ ) is a measure of the robot’s leg angle response
2]Zn
4l 1 Md ZMd to a harmonic excitation of electrical voltage’s frequency Z .
(ln  )M d
bh 2 Considerable insight into the leg’s behaviour can be gained
where  is the viscous damping factor and Zn the natural by examining how the magnitude of G (iZ ) vary with the
frequency of the micro-robot’s leg, G the complementary electrical voltage’s frequency Z . The corresponding no
parameter of the magnitude of a driven force, A is the dimensional diagram, | G (iZ ) | versus Z , are made even
magnitude of the electrical voltage. more informative by using the viscous damping factor  as a
The parameters of the micro-robot are calculated as parameter. The plot is shown in Fig. 7, from which we
followed and introduced to the dynamic equation of a micro- observe that the magnitude of G (iZ ) tends to suddenly
robot’s leg (19),
decrease from the top, for 0< Z <2 and slowly to increase the
] =0.078, Zn =4.43 rad/s, f=0.705Hz. (21) amplitudes and to shift the second peak to the left of the
vertical through Z =4.33, for 2< Z <3.899. Then, for
We can rewrite the dynamic equation in the following form Z >3.899, the amplitude of G (iZ ) also tends to decrease
0.0716
T(t )  0.676T(t )  19.62T (t ) A sin Zt . (22) slowly. To find the location and value of the peaks, we use the
Z standard technique of calculus for finding the maximum of a
We can obtain the angle displacement of a micro-robot’s leg function, namely, setting the derivative equal to zero.

1105
 d | G(iZ) | 0.076Z  0.005Z3
0 . (26)
dZ {[1  0.05Z 2 ]2  0.012Z 2}3/ 2
Hence, we can obtain the value of the peaks
Z =3.899 rad/s. (27)
I is the phase angle of the leg, which explains the different
between the leg’s angle and the electrical voltage’s angle. The
leg’s characters can be gained by examining how the phase
angle I vary with Z . We plot I versus Z as shown in Fig. 8.
We observe that the curve pass through the point I =0,
Z =4.43 rad/s. Moreover, for Z <4.33 rad/s, the phase angle
is inching up from zero and abruptly increasing up when 3
rad/s< Z <4.33 rad/s, for 4.33 rad/s< Z <6 rad/s, the phase
angle abruptly decreasing and for Z >6 rad/s, the phase angle
approaches to 0.
V. CHARACTERISTIC MEASUREMENT OF THE TORTOISE-LIKE
MICRO-ROBOT Fig. 7 The micro-robot’s leg frequency magnitude

The prototype of developed micro-robot using ICPF

actuator is shown in Fig. 9, the specification of the micro-
robot is 4.6mm in width and 21.6mm in length as shown in
Table I. The body of micro-robot is mainly made of
Styrofoam material for lightweight. A digital signal generator
can control the electric voltage set onto the ICPF actuators.
The bending displacement of a leg at the point of the front end
is measured. First, the bending amplitude of a leg can be
obtained driven by an input voltage as shown in Fig. 10.
According to the angle displacement function (24), we can
know the following information:
For Z =0, T (t ) =0; For 0 < Zt  I </2, T (t ) should
increase in proportional to Z ; For /2< Zt I <,
T (t ) should decrease as Z increasing. So, we can plot
T (t ) versus f as shown in Fig. 10 when t=10s, the electrical
voltage V=2v.
Comparing Fig. 10 with Fig. 11, we can know they are Fig. 8 The micro-robot’s phase angle
similar when electrical voltage V=2v, but for 0 Hz< f <0.8 Hz,
there are not the experiment data because the measure
instrument’s function is limited. Then, the simulation numbers
are smaller than the experiment data. We will improve the
precision of the dynamics model after we further study the
robot.
TABLE I
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE PROTOTYPE MICRO-ROBOT
Size 66.21mm*68.62mm*12.61mm
Weight 20.3g
Material Styrofoam, plastic
Actuator ICPF Actuator(0.2mm*4.6mm*21.6mm)
Power supply Electricity(6v)

Fig. 9 Photo of the micro-robot

1106

Fig. 10 The micro-robot’s leg displacement
Fig. 11 The simulation result of the leg displacement
Ҍ. CONCLUSION
A novel tortoise-like micro-robot, actuated by ICPF, is
designed not only to swim in the water, but also to walk in
unstructured environment or in unpredictable dynamic
surrounding. The dynamic model of a tortoise-like-micro-
robot’s Leg has been developed based on the theory of
PRBDM. The dynamic equation of the micro-robot’ Leg has
been derived.
1107
The numerical results illustrate the effectiveness and
advantage of the PRBDM in predicting the natural frequency
and swing angle displacement of the micro-robot’s Leg. The
method of the PRBDM can be used to further study the
dynamic analysis and design of the micro-robot.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Advance Manufacture
Technology Laboratory of Beijing University of Technology
for providing the fund. The author would also like to
appreciate his professors Yueqing YU, Jing Zhao and his
classmates Xinjie Gao, Zhe Liu, Zhenjie Liu, Xinxin Zeng,
Huawei Wang, Henjun Bai and so on.
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