Tetraflex robot changes shape for numerous tasks
A Bristol University team at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory has built a tetrahedron shaped robot that changes shape to negotiate challenging terrain or encapsulate and transport fragile objects.
The Tetraflex robot can travel in multiple different ways, making it potentially useful for mobility in challenging or confined environments such as navigating rubble to reach survivors of an earthquake, performing oil rig inspections or even exploring other planets. The team’s findings are detailed in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.
The robot’s object transport capability could be used to pick up and transport payloads from otherwise inaccessible locations, helping with ecological surveying or in nuclear decommissioning.
In a statement, lead author Peter Wharton from Bristol’s School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology said: “The robot is composed of soft struts connected by rigid nodes. Each strut is formed of an airtight rubber bellow and the length of the strut can be controlled by varying the air pressure within the bellow.
“Higher pressures cause the bellow to extend, and lower pressures cause it to contract. By controlling the pressure in each bellow simultaneously we can control the robot shape and size change.
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