Modular bionic foot design inspired by blue sheep

Abstract

This paper presents a modular bionic foot inspired by the blue sheep hoof. The blue sheep can run and jump freely between cliffs partly because of its special hooves. We present and summarize the features of the blue sheep foot as well as the climbing mechanism and then designed a bionic foot imitating the blue sheep hoof. The bionic foot consists of a modular connector mechanism and two symmetrical hooves with central concave shape, which is hard outside and soft inside. Our unique design of mechanical configuration is two symmetrical oblique hinges as ankle joints, which can help the two hooves to form a V-shape or an inverted V-shape. With the oblique hinges, the mechanical foot can provide climbing force while having no actuators to be simple and light. The simulation and experiment results show that the mechanical foot has a good climbing ability on mountainous regions.