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Robotic tails: a state-of-the-art review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2018

Wael Saab ,
William S. Rone  and
Pinhas Ben-Tzvi
Wael Saab
Affiliation:
Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA E-mails: waelsaab@vt.edu, wsrone@vt.edu
William S. Rone
Affiliation:
Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA E-mails: waelsaab@vt.edu, wsrone@vt.edu
Pinhas Ben-Tzvi*
Affiliation:
Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA E-mails: waelsaab@vt.edu, wsrone@vt.edu
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: bentzvi@vt.edu
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Summary

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in robotic tails intended for inertial adjustment applications on-board mobile robots. Inspired by biological tails observed in nature, robotic tails provide a separate means to enhance stabilization, and maneuverability from the mobile robot's main form of locomotion, such as legs or wheels. Research over the past decade has primarily focused on implementing single-body rigid pendulum-like tail mechanisms to demonstrate inertial adjustment capabilities on-board walking, jumping and wheeled mobile robots. Recently, there have been increased efforts aimed at leveraging the benefits of both articulated and continuum tail mechanism designs to enhance inertial adjustment capabilities and further emulate the structure and functionalities of tail usage found in nature. This paper discusses relevant research in design, modeling, analysis and implementation of robotic tails onto mobile robots, and highlight how this work is being used to build robotic systems with enhanced performance capabilities. The goal of this article is to outline progress and identify key challenges that lay ahead.

Keywords

Biomimetic robotsRobot dynamicsMobile robotsLegged robotsNovel applications of robotics
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 36 , Issue 9 , September 2018 , pp. 1263 - 1277
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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