Somatosensitive film soft crawling robots driven by artificial muscle for load carrying and multi-terrain locomotion

Liu, ZS (Liu, Zhongsheng)^{[ 1 ]} ; Zhang, R (Zhang, Rui)^{[ 2 ]} ; Xiao, YC (Xiao, Yicheng)^{[ 1 ]} ; Li, JT (Li, Jiatian)^{[ 1 ]} ; Chang, W (Chang, Wang)^{[ 1 ]} ; Qian, D (Qian, Dong)^{[ 2 ]} ; Liu, ZF (Liu, Zunfeng)^{[ 1 ]}

MATERIALS HORIZONS, 2021

DOI: 10.1039/d1mh00457c

摘要

Somatosensitive soft crawling robotics is highly desired for load carrying and multi-terrain locomotion. The motor-driven skeleton robots and pneumatic robots are effective and well-developed, while the bulk size, rigidity, or complexity limit their applications. In this paper, a somatosensitive film soft crawling robot driven by an artificial muscle was developed, which can carry heavy loads and crawl on multiple terrains. A bow-shaped film skeleton connected with a twisted-fiber artificial muscle is not easily deformed while carrying a load. A strain sensor coating on the film skeleton was used to detect the body deformation of the robot and a controller was designed for feedback control to make the robot self-crawling. This film soft crawling robot was demonstrated to crawl on the multi-terrain such as flat, mountainous, and underwater, as well as surfaces with different roughness. This work provides a new design strategy for multi-functional compact soft crawling robotics.