Soft autonomous robot mimics the actions of an earthworm
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and Seoul National University have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves through peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body.
Sangbae Kim, the Esther and Harold E Edgerton assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, said in a statement that such a soft robot may be useful for navigating rough terrain or squeezing through tight spaces.
The robot is named Meshworm for the flexible, mesh-like tube that makes up its body.
To make the robot, researchers created artificial muscle from wire made of nickel and titanium — a shape-memory alloy that stretches and contracts with heat. They wound the wire around the tube, creating segments along its length. They then applied a small current to the segments of wire, squeezing the mesh tube and propelling the robot forward.
A significant challenge in soft robotics has been in designing soft actuators to power robots such as Meshworm. One solution has been to use compressed air pumped through a robot to move it, but Kim said integrating micro air compressors into a small autonomous robot is a challenge.
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