Researchers have engineered a soft robot that inches ahead with earthworm-like peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body.
The robot, made almost entirely of soft materials, is remarkably resilient: even when stepped upon or bludgeoned with a hammer, it is able to inch away unscathed.
Sangbae Kim, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says such a soft robot may be useful for navigating rough terrain or squeezing through tight spaces, the journal IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics reports.
Reuters
They wound the wire around the tube, creating segments along its length, much like the segments of an earthworm. They then applied a small current to the segments of wire, squeezing the mesh tube and propelling the robot forward.
Besides Kim, other co-authors are graduate student Sangok Seok and post-doctoral researcher Cagdas Denizel Ona, MIT; associate professor Robert J. Wood, Harvard University; assistant professor Kyu-Jin Cho, Seoul National University, and Daniela Rus, professor of computer science and engineering at MIT.
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