Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) have created a soft robot inspired by earthworms that has promising utility in underground exploration, excavation, search and rescue operations, and extraterrestrial exploration.
How They Did It
TechXplore reports that BioInspired Soft Robotics lab created a peristaltic soft actuator (PSA) that mimics the antagonistic muscle movements of earthworms, which generate retrograde peristaltic waves to propel themselves both below and above the soil surface. When air is pumped into the PSA, it expands; when air is extracted from it, it contracts.
The robot's entire body comprises five PSA modules connected in series, each with an elastomeric skin encapsulating a known amount of fluid, simulating the constant volume of internal coelomic fluid in earthworms (fluid-filled cavity serving as a skeleton).
As the longitudinal muscles of an individual constant volume chamber contract, the earthworm segment becomes shorter longitudinally and wider circumferentially, exerting radial forces.
The robot is also outfitted with small passive friction pads inspired by earthworm setae to propel itself on a planar surface. With a speed of 1.35mm/s, the robot showed enhanced locomotion.
A Simplified Look at the Study
It is hard to create robots for underground movement as they have to traverse unstructured, high-pressure environments. The researchers were inspired by the way earthworms move by contracting and expanding muscles, and they created a soft robot with a similar mechanism.
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The robot utilizes a peristaltic soft actuator (PSA) that can switch between two active configurations to generate a force for forward movement and an anchoring force. Five PSA modules on the robot collaborate to create a peristaltic motion similar to an earthworm.
The researchers also evaluated the robot's ability to move across various media, including sand and soil, and investigated the role of friction by affixing passive scales to the robot's underside. This research provides a novel method for developing soft robots that can move like earthworms and enhance our knowledge of locomotion in complex settings.
Read more about the study here.
More About the Soft Robot
Researchers say that the development of the robot resembling an earthworm was made possible by a comprehensive understanding and application of earthworm locomotion mechanics. Each segment of the earthworm's body contains a specific amount of fluid that regulates internal pressure to exert forces and engage in independent, localized, and variable movement.
The IIT researchers studied the morphology of earthworms and developed soft robotic solutions to resemble their muscle movements, constant volume coelomic chambers, and the activity of their bristle-like hairs (setae).
The earthworm-like robot represents significant progress in the field of soft robotics, paving the way for future advancements. The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Back in February, engineers from Ben-Gurion University claimed to have created one of the fastest and most effective amphibious robots, dubbed "AmphiSAW."
The robot's movement in water is based on the motion of flippers, while its movement on land is based on centipedes.
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