Tetrahedral robots come from a family of crawling and tumbling robots. They operate by changing their shape. This could be a more functional way to move than a wheeled rover because it can crawl or tumble over rough terrain and obstacles. The current tetrahedral robot (an 8-TET), which was developed by our team, moves by tumbling or rolling. This is a problem because it constantly is changing its orientation due to the fact that it is rolling and each part is upside down at some point. A new robot was to be designed that does not change its orientation. The idea of the Tetrahedral Worm (TET Worm) came about as a possible alternative for the current robot. The TET Worm moves by crawling rather than tumbling. By doing this movement, it holds a constant orientation. The new robot could be designed, tested, and controlled using SimMechanics, which is a package of MATLAB. After the robot is designed and a control system is constructed on the program, several Gaits (the way that the robot will move) must be designed for the TET Worm. The Gaits can then be compared to one another to test which is the best for controllability, force on the struts, and speed.
['Korey Cook', 'Miguel Abrahantes']
Gait design for a Tetrahedral Worm