On the Mechanics of Bristle-Bots - Modeling, Simulation and Experiments

Bristle-bots are simple and tiny robots, which use bristles and internal vibration sources to perform locomotion. In this paper, the locomotion behavior of such systems is studied. An analytical model is presented and solved numerically for different configurations and parameters. The goal is to obtain the influence of the system parameters to the locomotion velocity. The numerical results are compared with experimental studies of a prototype. Furthermore the state of the art of mobile robots with bristles is presented.