Test Benches for Comparing the Performance of an Ant's Leg with a Hexapod Robot's Leg

Animal-inspired mobile robots tend to show remarkable performance in outdoor locomotion and navigation tasks, but a big gap remains between robots and animals in terms of autonomy and endurance [1]. Biomimicry is helping to solve numerous design issues through a better understanding of how animals move. Insect-inspired robots, in particular, can be built to interact with uneven terrains which are difficult to traverse for other robots [1], and bio-inspired robots designed to overcome the technological limitations of artificial systems are also valuable models for biologists in better understanding the behavior of animals [1], [2]. Therefore, exploring the limitations caused by mimicking insects of a few millimeters with robots measuring several centimeters becomes relevant. In this study, we first present two test benches used to investigate leg movement: one used to characterize that of an ant and the other that of a robotic leg. By comparing this multiscale data, we discuss the significance and relevance of these measurements in evaluating the robotic performance.