Dima, tail-assisted big-wheeled robot, University of Cape Town (UCT), Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Inspired by the Cheetah, we present a novel tail control system for manoeuvring terrestrial robots at high speed. We show that by rapidly swinging the tail, our robot is capable of turning at much higher speeds than a tail-less version. A. Patel and M. Braae, "Rapid Turning at High-Speed: Inspirations from the Cheetah's Tail," in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tokyo, 2013.

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Stimulated by observations of cheetahs accelerating, a novel tail controller system for rapid acceleration and braking is presented. To understand the targeted behaviour of a cheetah performing a longitudinal manoeuvre and the effects an actuated tail has, a simple mathematical template was developed. Subsequently feedback controllers were designed based on our hypothesis. Finally, the control system was experimentally tested on a reduced order robot model which increased its manoeuvrability considerably.

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This video presents an extension of the research conducted by A Patel and C Fisher in the area of bio-inspired, aerial orientation techniques for robotic platforms. Inspired by the kangaroo rat, and how it uses its tail to aerially orientate itself in the yaw plane, this project presents a robot capable of using a tail to perform a 360-degree yaw rotation stunt.

The system was dynamically modelled using the Lagrange method, and subsequently simulations were performed to ensure optimal robot design. A control system was design for the robot, which exhibited robust, high levels of performance – achieving the stunt repeatedly in approximately 0.4 s.

This video documents the system’s performance in both in testing and on a jump. This research was conducted by J Perry and A Patel.

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