Bionic low-frequency vibration isolator inspired by goat joints

Abstract

Joints are effective in absorbing the ground impact and isolating the vibrations caused by the impact when goats jump over the cliff to find food. A bionic vibration isolator for low-frequency vibration inspired by the goat hind limb joint is proposed. The quadrilateral mechanism of the bionic vibration isolator of varying sizes is used to mimic the vibration suppression effect of multiple joints in the hind limbs of goats. The rigid rods in the bionic mechanism are used to mimic the role of the bones in the joint, and the springs are used to mimic the function of the muscles or tendons near the joint. In addition, the slider mechanism of the bionic mechanism brings nonlinear damping and mass, which could effectively help the system to reduce the resonant frequency and enhance the vibration isolation performance. The natural frequency of the bionic mechanism is 1.2 Hz, while the natural frequency of the linear mechanism under the same conditions is 5.1 Hz. When the external vibration exceeds 2.4 Hz, the proposed bionic mechanism begins to perform vibration isolation performance. Compared with the linear vibration isolation device, the bionic mechanism has lower natural frequency, better vibration isolation performance, and wider vibration isolation frequency band. Therefore, this study creatively proposed a vibration control mechanism inspired by animal limbs and proposed a high-stability and low-cost bionic structures in the field of vibration control.