Robots "in-the-wild" encounter and must traverse widely varying terrain, ranging from solid ground to granular materials like sand to full liquids. Numerous approaches exist, including wheeled and legged robots, each excelling in specific domains. Screw-based locomotion is a promising approach for multi-domain mobility, leveraged in exploratory robotic designs, including amphibious vehicles and snake robotics. However, unlike other forms of locomotion, there is a limited exploration of the models, parameter effects, and efficiency for multi-terrain Archimedes screw locomotion. In this work, we present work towards this missing component in understanding screw-based locomotion: comprehensive experimental results and performance analysis across different media. We designed a mobile test bed for indoor and outdoor experimentation to collect this data. Beyond quantitatively showing the multi-domain mobility of screw-based locomotion, we envision future researchers and engineers using the presented results to design effective screw-based locomotion systems.

翻译：“野外”机器人必须穿越并适应从固体地面、颗粒状材料（如沙子）到完全液体等变化极大的地形。现有多种方法，包括轮式与腿式机器人，各自在特定领域表现卓越。基于螺旋的运动是实现多域机动性的一种有前景的方法，已应用于探索性机器人设计中，包括水陆两栖车辆和蛇形机器人。然而，与其他运动形式不同，针对多地形阿基米德螺旋运动的模型、参数影响及效率的研究仍十分有限。本文旨在填补这一空白，通过在不同介质中的全面实验结果与性能分析，为理解基于螺旋的运动提供关键缺失部分。我们设计了一个移动测试平台，用于室内外实验以收集相关数据。除了定量展示基于螺旋运动的多域机动性外，我们期望未来的研究人员和工程师能利用本文结果设计高效的基于螺旋的运动系统。