Bionic wheel bot: is that the future of mobility?

I n When it comes to engineering, nature has innumerable good ideas up its sleeve. Be it earthquake-proof house structures, sharkskin swimming suits or modes of transport. Sometimes they are so adventurous to look at that they inevitably arouse the interest of researchers and developers and inspire them in turn to spectacular inventions. In the case of the Bionic Wheel Bot, the Moroccan cyclist spider was the model. A spider that was only discovered in 2008 in the Erg Chebbi desert on the edge of the Sahara by Professor Ingo Rechenberg and now even bears his name: Cebrennus rechenbergi.

Festo

The BionicWheelBot mimics the movements of the cyclist spider.

The special thing about the real spider, which is up to two centimeters tall, is not its name, but their locomotion variations. It combines the classic spider walk with a combined sequence of flight and ground roles. Hopping and rolling is twice as fast as normal running. Since Ingo Rechenberg discovered the spider, he has been concerned with the technical transfer of their movement patterns. The result is the Bionic Wheel Bot, which he has further developed together with the control and automation specialist Festo as part of the Bionic Learning Network.

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Withthe roll forwards through the desert

The 57 centimeter long, 23.8 centimeter high and 79.6 centimeter wide Bionic-Wheel-Bot moves like a real spider in a reciprocal three-legged manner. That means that he uses six of his eight legs, which are almost 35 centimeters long, to run. In order to get rolling, he forms three legs to the left and right of his body to form a wheel. Two legs folded while running extend, push the balled spider off the ground and push it continuously while rolling. In this way, they prevent the robotic spider from getting stuck and at the same time ensure that it can move around even in rough terrain.

In roll mode, the Bionic-Wheel-Bot does the same thing as the natural cyclist spider with its entire body a rollover. Thanks to the integrated inertial sensor, he always knows what position he is in and when he has to push off again. He is also much faster when rolling than when running and can even cope with inclines of up to five percent uphill. The Bionic-Wheel-Bot is made of 3-D printed polyamide, the battery is a lithium polymer battery with 7.4 volts and 1,000 mAh. The radio remote control takes place via tablet and the actuators consist of 14 self-locking worm drives and a servo motor.