A soft crawling robot with a modular design based on electrohydraulic actuator

Summary: The soft structure of creatures without a rigid internal skeleton can easily adapt to any atypical environment. In the same context, robots with soft structures can change their shape to adapt to complex and varied surroundings. In this study, we introduce a caterpillar-inspired soft crawli...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sohyun Kim, Youngsu Cha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-05-01
Series:iScience
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223008039
Description
Summary:Summary: The soft structure of creatures without a rigid internal skeleton can easily adapt to any atypical environment. In the same context, robots with soft structures can change their shape to adapt to complex and varied surroundings. In this study, we introduce a caterpillar-inspired soft crawling robot with a fully soft body. The proposed crawling robot consists of soft modules based on an electrohydraulic actuator, a body frame, and contact pads. The modular robotic design produces deformations similar to the peristaltic crawling behavior of caterpillars. In this approach, the deformable body replicates the mechanism of the anchor movement of a caterpillar by sequentially varying the friction between the robot contact pads and the ground. The robot carries out forward movement by repeating the operation pattern. The robot has also been demonstrated to traverse slopes and narrow crevices.
ISSN:2589-0042