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

Sohyun Kim; Youngsu Cha

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106726

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

iScience. 2023 Apr 26;26(5):106726. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106726. eCollection 2023 May 19.

Authors

Sohyun Kim¹, Youngsu Cha¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Mechanical property; Mechatronics; Robotics.