Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16691 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866914275475324928 |
|---|---|
| author | Sun, Siyuan Lin, Eugene H. Brown, Nathan Hung, Hsin-Yi Gordus, Andrew Mueller, Jochen Li, Chen |
| author_facet | Sun, Siyuan Lin, Eugene H. Brown, Nathan Hung, Hsin-Yi Gordus, Andrew Mueller, Jochen Li, Chen |
| contents | Orb-weaving spiders detect prey on a web using vibration sensors at leg joints. They often dynamically crouch their legs during prey sensing, likely an active sensing strategy. However, how leg crouching enhances sensing is poorly understood, because measuring system vibrations in behaving animals is difficult. We use robophysical modeling to study this problem. Our previous spider robot had only four legs, simplified leg morphology, and a shallow crouching range of motion. Here, we developed a new spider robot, with eight legs, each with four joints that better approximated spider leg morphology. Leg exoskeletons were 3-D printed and joint stiffness was tuned using integrated silicone molding with variable materials and geometry. Tendon-driven actuation allowed a motor in the body to crouch all eight legs deeply as spiders do, while accelerometers at leg joints record leg vibrations. Experiments showed that our new spider robot reproduced key vibration features observed in the previous robot while improving biological accuracy. Our new robot provides a biologically more accurate robophysical model for studying how leg behaviors modulate vibration sensing on a web. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_16691 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Creating a biologically more accurate spider robot to study active vibration sensing Sun, Siyuan Lin, Eugene H. Brown, Nathan Hung, Hsin-Yi Gordus, Andrew Mueller, Jochen Li, Chen Robotics Orb-weaving spiders detect prey on a web using vibration sensors at leg joints. They often dynamically crouch their legs during prey sensing, likely an active sensing strategy. However, how leg crouching enhances sensing is poorly understood, because measuring system vibrations in behaving animals is difficult. We use robophysical modeling to study this problem. Our previous spider robot had only four legs, simplified leg morphology, and a shallow crouching range of motion. Here, we developed a new spider robot, with eight legs, each with four joints that better approximated spider leg morphology. Leg exoskeletons were 3-D printed and joint stiffness was tuned using integrated silicone molding with variable materials and geometry. Tendon-driven actuation allowed a motor in the body to crouch all eight legs deeply as spiders do, while accelerometers at leg joints record leg vibrations. Experiments showed that our new spider robot reproduced key vibration features observed in the previous robot while improving biological accuracy. Our new robot provides a biologically more accurate robophysical model for studying how leg behaviors modulate vibration sensing on a web. |
| title | Creating a biologically more accurate spider robot to study active vibration sensing |
| topic | Robotics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16691 |