Development of Integrated Digging Robot Using Drill Bit-Limbs Hybrid Mechanism That Mimics Burrowing Animals Behavior

Abstract

Over the last few years, drilling system has been extensively used for a miscellaneous number of applications. However, in certain applications, e.g., shallow drilling and excavation on a difficult or rugged terrain, excavation using conventional drilling methods are not applicable. Considering the aggravating obstacles of drill bit application, in this study, digging attitude of burrowing animals (rabbits and moles) is studied. The soil penetrating force developed by burrowing animals, nevertheless, is indeed inadequate for harder and deeper excavation. Therefore, to overcome the aforementioned issues, this paper proposes a hybrid digging mechanism by combining the advantage of employing a drill bit and forelimbs mechanism adapted from burrowing animals. Emulating the role of their teeth, triangle-shaped drill bit, i.e., step drill bit, is exploited and a linkage mechanism is utilized to represent their digging motion using limbs. Dynamic simulation is performed to evaluate the digging performance of this robot.