Porcospino Flex: a bio-inspired single-track robot with a 3D-printed, flexible, compliant vertebral column

Nodehi, SE, Bruzzone, L, Lalegani Dezaki, M ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5680-1550, Zolfagharian, A and Bodaghi, M ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0707-944X, 2024. Porcospino Flex: a bio-inspired single-track robot with a 3D-printed, flexible, compliant vertebral column. Robotics, 13 (5): 76. ISSN 2218-6581

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Abstract

This paper is focused on the design and development of the Porcospino Flex, a single-track robot inspired by nature and featuring a meta-material structure. In the earlier version of the Porcospino, the main body was composed of a chain of vertebrae and two end sections linked by flexible joints, but the excessive use of materials in 3D printing and the resulting weight of the robot posed challenges, ultimately leading to a decrease in its overall efficiency and performance. The Porcospino Flex is manufactured through the fused deposition modeling process using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and thermoplastic polyurethane, featuring a singular meta-material structure vertebral column. The adoption of a lattice structure in the main body of the Porcospino Flex leads to a substantial increase in performance, reducing its weight from 4200 g to 3600 g. Furthermore, the decrease in weight leads to a reduction in material usage and waste, making a substantial contribution to the sustainability of the robot. The discussion focuses on the testing results of the Porcospino Flex prototype, highlighting the enhancements observed compared to its prior version.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Robotics
Creators: Nodehi, S.E., Bruzzone, L., Lalegani Dezaki, M., Zolfagharian, A. and Bodaghi, M.
Publisher: MDPI
Date: 13 May 2024
Volume: 13
Number: 5
ISSN: 2218-6581
Identifiers:
Number
Type
10.3390/robotics13050076
DOI
1896274
Other
Rights: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions: Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by: Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added: 22 May 2024 08:54
Last Modified: 22 May 2024 08:54
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/51461

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