UC Santa Barbara

Repeated, reliable, and efficient anchoring into negative spaces, such as cracks in rocks, is a capability that provides robots with a great deal of value. Due to their ease of deployment and ability to conform to a wide range of crack shapes and sizes, inflatable pouch anchors are a particularly suitable option for anchoring robots. However, existing pouch anchors are limited in that they can only be used a finite number of times and are designed to anchor a fixed amount of force per inflation. Inspired by the camming mechanism of rock climbing cams, improvements to previous pouch anchor systems areproposed. Rather than using consumables (such as CO2 cartridges), the proposed system implements a piston that uses the force pulling on the anchor to pressurize itself. By doing so, it is near-infinitely reusable with regards to pressure generation, and further, selecting the correct size piston means systems can anchor arbitrarily large applied forces. Models are derived to predict these capabilities, and testing is performed to validate the models. This technology is especially interesting for anchoring robots, such as providing fixed points for deploying structures, due to the anchor’s small form-factor, ease of deployment, and lack of reliance on consumables for pressurization.