Annelidabot (ann uh lee’ duh bot) is, well, a robotic worm. The name is derived from the organism’s scientific phylum name: Annelida (ann uh lee’ duh). Phylum Annelida contains only one type of organism; and that is the segmented worm. After doing an in-depth study of the earthworm and its anatomy, I was hit with the sudden inspiration of creating a robotic worm. I had a written description of how the earthworm moved and this was all I needed to get me started.
To make Annelidabot mobile, I decided to use how a real earthworm moves because I knew that this could be relied on. One of the most amazing things about this invention is the fact that it can lift itself completely up off the ground. It takes a lot of torque and power to do this, which is why the main driving axle is run through 6 gears (each of them increasing the torque), and a worm gear in a gearbox. To move, it makes one of the “legs” go down (pushing the body upwards), then the other, moves the first leg back up, and then moves the other leg back up. During these liftings and lowerings, the legs will latch onto the carpet with my version of “setae”. In a worm, setae are little bristles all over the worm that hold onto their surroundings. My setae are, of course, passive. In my robot they dig into the carpet, allowing the other leg to push into the opposite direction, which is how the robot is able to make progress (in theory).
I also spent some time trying to make Annelidabot look like a worm. I used a lot of ribbed hosing and a few other decoration pieces for this purpose. One interesting feature, actually unintentional, is the fact that as Annelidabot moves along, parts of the ribbed hosing move in a lifelike way with it! The decoration pieces that move are connected directly to the moving legs with pins, which explains how this happens. This feature makes it all the more interesting to watch.
Overall, the results were very interesting. I achieved results of moving forwards and inch and a half in one “revolution”, to moving backwards some! I believe it might be the type of carpet you use. I would try running it in different types or portions of carpet but probably not on hard floor!
The program is in NQC and is here for download. It is a relatively simple program that makes the robot execute a series of maneuvers that makes it move forwards forever. I would like to add more features to the robot in the future. Turning ability and possibly a larger size are some desired features of mine that would go well with Annelidabot. |
