This study investigated the function of the beetle’s claw for its smooth and slipless walking and designed an artificial claw open–close cycle mechanism to mimic the beetle’s walking. First, the effects of claw opening and closing on beetles’ ability to attach to surfaces were examined. A beetle does not have an attachment pad, and only its claws work to grip the ground; its claw opens and closes and attaches with two sharp hooks. With their claws, beetles can smoothly walk, neither slipping on nor having their claws stuck in the surface. How do they perform smooth walking with sharp claws? In this study, we observed that beetles close their claws when they raise and swung their legs forward, while they open their claws when they lowered their legs to the ground. We then conducted non-destructive tests: their claws were forced open or closed. There was a significant difference in the trajectories of forced-closed claws compared to intact claws and forced-open claws. When their claws were forced-closed, this caused slippage in walking. On the other hand, when a claw was forced-open and its rotation was also inhibited, the claw stuck heavily in the surface, and the beetle could not walk. Based on these findings, we designed an artificial claw to open and close in the same cyclic manner as in the case of natural beetles. The performance of the artificial claw was consistent with the conclusions drawn from natural beetles: the locomotive robot with the artificial claw smoothly moved without slippage. Through these observations, non-destructive tests and performance of the bio-inspired artificial claws, this study confirmed the function of the open–close cycle of beetle claws and demonstrated and successfully adopted it for a locomotive robot.

本研究调查了甲虫爪子的平稳行走功能，并设计了一种人工爪子开闭循环机构来模拟甲虫的行走。首先，检查了爪子打开和关闭对甲虫附着表面能力的影响。甲虫没有附着垫，只有爪子可以抓地；它的爪子打开和关闭并用两个锋利的钩子连接。甲虫用爪子可以平稳地行走，既不会滑倒，也不会爪子卡在表面上。他们如何用锋利的爪子进行平稳的行走？在这项研究中，我们观察到甲虫在抬起并向前摆动双腿时会合上爪子，而在将双腿放低至地面时会张开爪子。然后我们进行了无损测试：它们的爪子被强制打开或关闭。与完整爪和强迫张开爪相比，强制闭合爪的轨迹存在显着差异。当它们的爪子被强制闭合时，这会导致行走时打滑。另一方面，当一只爪子被强行打开，它的旋转也被抑制时，爪子严重卡在表面，甲虫无法行走。基于这些发现，我们设计了一种人工爪，以与天然甲虫相同的循环方式打开和关闭。人工爪的性能与从天然甲虫得出的结论一致：带有人工爪的机车机器人运动平稳，不打滑。通过这些观察、非破坏性测试和仿生人造爪的性能，