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  4. Observation of Snails and a Bionic Snail Robot Crawling with Distributed Suction
 
conference paper

Observation of Snails and a Bionic Snail Robot Crawling with Distributed Suction

Ji, Qinjie
•
Song, Aiguo
•
Wang, Shaohu
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October 19, 2025
2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

Slow-speed animals can also exhibit remarkable capabilities, as seen in snails that crawl while maintaining adhesion. Snails have inspired researchers to develop traveling wave-based robots and suction robots; however, the combination of traveling wave propulsion with suction ability remains a challenge. In this paper, we propose a snail-inspired robot that integrates a corkscrew propulsion mechanism with distributed suction cups, enabling it to crawl upside down on the ceiling. The propulsion model of the corkscrew generating the traveling wave is derived, and a temporal-spatial decomposition method is applied to validate the high efficiency of traveling wave generation. The trade-off between wave amplitude and suction cup depth is investigated to determine an optimized configuration. The results show that the robot’s speed aligns well with the propulsion model. The traveling wave ratio calculated from experiments is 0.938. The optimized configuration consists of a corkscrew with a 14 mm diameter and suction cups with a 2.5 mm depth, achieving a crawling speed of 3.02 ± 0.28 mm/s while moving upside down. The combination of the proposed smooth traveling wave generation method and distributed suction cups enables the robot to crawl upside down while carrying a 200 g load and to climb a vertical wall, like a natural snail.

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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1109/iros60139.2025.11247638
Author(s)
Ji, Qinjie
Song, Aiguo
Wang, Shaohu
Kim, Sareum  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Hughes, Josie  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2025-10-19

Publisher

IEEE

Published in
2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
DOI of the book
https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS60139.2025
ISBN of the book

979-8-3315-4393-8

Start page

5577

End page

5584

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CREATE-LAB  
Event nameEvent acronymEvent placeEvent date
2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

IROS 2025

Hangzhou, China

2025-10-19 - 2025-10-25

Available on Infoscience
December 1, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/256518
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