A sliding sock locomotion module for a rescue robot

Rescue robotics for disaster response deserves practical importance. Reference tasks are inspection and monitoring of collapsed structures and disaster sites with searching/localization of victims. Mobile robots using unconventional locomotion strategies are developed and applied (crawling, peristaltic, serpentine). The identification of effective locomotion mechanisms and especially their practical realization is one major research issue; often reproducing effectively bioinspired mechanisms is challenging with today's available technologies. This paper presents a development step toward highly efficient crawling locomotion: A continuous membrane sliding along the entire body of the module provides distributed trust with minimum risk to get stuck. At one extremity of the module, the membrane rolls in, slides back and rolls out again at the other extremity. The design is discussed and a physical prototype is presented.