# 7829 / Development Of Foot In Balloon Biped Robot Using Buoyancy Force For Traveling Soft Ground ## Authors Noriaki Mizukami, Masanori Aragane, and Mami Nishida {% hint style="info" %} Paper presented at ISTVS 2024 | 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS\ Keywords: Soft biped walking robot; Planetary surface exploration; Soft robotics\ {% endhint %} ## Abstract In planetary exploration mission, an exploration robot has to travel on unknown and uneven, soft ground. Thus, a locomotion mechanism is an important, and the locomotion systems are discussed three types such as wheel, crawler and legs. The leg type has advantages of adaptability and an effective locomotion for terrains. Because a walking robot is able to avoid rocks and depressed areas. However, the biped robot is structurally complex and fall down easily. In this research, we developed the biped robot that is made of a soft balloon body fulfilled by helium. Since the body of the robot is always floating by helium balloon, the robot cannot fall down while walking. The leg structure for walking is made of an artificial muscle actuator. When the control command applies to the actuators, the legs swing up lightly. When the control command stops applying, the legs swing down slowly. The robot is able to move forward when the legs swing up and down repeat alternately. We have achieved the walking movement by a manual ON-OFF control of actuators on firm grounds. The purpose of this research is to clarify the interaction between the leg mechanism and soft soil. In this paper, we performed walking experiments on soft soil to estimate states of walking movements on flat soft soil using original flat shape of foots. It was confirmed that the foots did not sink and slip and the robot moved forward. Furthermore, we propose a new type of foot parts that is able to travel on uneven, soft or slope grounds, and perform experiments for verifying effectiveness. *** Full paper purchase: \ ISTVS members receive three complimentary papers per year: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://2024.istvs.org/submissions/papers/7829.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.