Multimodal Limbless Crawling Soft Robot with a Kirigami Skin

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Tirado, Jonathan, Parvaresh, Aida, Seyidoğlu, Burcu, Bedford, Darryl A., Jørgensen, Jonas, Rafsanjani, Ahmad
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Tirado, Jonathan
Parvaresh, Aida
Seyidoğlu, Burcu
Bedford, Darryl A.
Jørgensen, Jonas
Rafsanjani, Ahmad
author_facet Tirado, Jonathan
Parvaresh, Aida
Seyidoğlu, Burcu
Bedford, Darryl A.
Jørgensen, Jonas
Rafsanjani, Ahmad
contents Limbless creatures can crawl on flat surfaces by deforming their bodies and interacting with asperities on the ground, offering a biological blueprint for designing efficient limbless robots. Inspired by this natural locomotion, we present a soft robot capable of navigating complex terrains using a combination of rectilinear motion and asymmetric steering gaits. The robot is made of a pair of antagonistic inflatable soft actuators covered with a flexible kirigami skin with asymmetric frictional properties. The robot's rectilinear locomotion is achieved through cyclic inflation of internal chambers with precise phase shifts, enabling forward progression. Steering is accomplished using an asymmetric gait, allowing for both in-place rotation and wide turns. To validate its mobility in obstacle-rich environments, we tested the robot in an arena with coarse substrates and multiple obstacles. Real-time feedback from onboard proximity sensors, integrated with a human-machine interface (HMI), allowed adaptive control to avoid collisions. This study highlights the potential of bioinspired soft robots for applications in confined or unstructured environments, such as search-and-rescue operations, environmental monitoring, and industrial inspections.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_04547
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multimodal Limbless Crawling Soft Robot with a Kirigami Skin
Tirado, Jonathan
Parvaresh, Aida
Seyidoğlu, Burcu
Bedford, Darryl A.
Jørgensen, Jonas
Rafsanjani, Ahmad
Robotics
Limbless creatures can crawl on flat surfaces by deforming their bodies and interacting with asperities on the ground, offering a biological blueprint for designing efficient limbless robots. Inspired by this natural locomotion, we present a soft robot capable of navigating complex terrains using a combination of rectilinear motion and asymmetric steering gaits. The robot is made of a pair of antagonistic inflatable soft actuators covered with a flexible kirigami skin with asymmetric frictional properties. The robot's rectilinear locomotion is achieved through cyclic inflation of internal chambers with precise phase shifts, enabling forward progression. Steering is accomplished using an asymmetric gait, allowing for both in-place rotation and wide turns. To validate its mobility in obstacle-rich environments, we tested the robot in an arena with coarse substrates and multiple obstacles. Real-time feedback from onboard proximity sensors, integrated with a human-machine interface (HMI), allowed adaptive control to avoid collisions. This study highlights the potential of bioinspired soft robots for applications in confined or unstructured environments, such as search-and-rescue operations, environmental monitoring, and industrial inspections.
title Multimodal Limbless Crawling Soft Robot with a Kirigami Skin
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.04547