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A team of Harvard scientists designed a soft robot which can move under difficult obstacles by mimicking the movements of certain animals, such as squid and worms.
The robot doesnt have a hard internal skeleton; it is composed solely of elastomeric polymers and a series of chambers. Using a pneumatic valving system, the chambers can be inflated to create movement, which boils down to a combination of crawling and undulation.
All of this enables the 5-inch robot to crawl, for example, under a glass plate elevated 2 cm from the ground. In a series of tests, scientists were able to navigate the robot through that gap in under a minute.
This type of design makes the robot less susceptible to damage from falls and colliding with hard objects. It does, however, makes it more susceptible to damage from punctures.
Another drawback is the problem of power: the robot is connected to an external power source, which wont do in real world situations. There are many challenges to actively moving soft robots and no easy solutions, neurobiologist Barry Trimmer, one of the designers of the robot, said in an email to Washington Post.
Check out a series of videos and a PDF detailing the design of the robot here.
[via Pnas, BBC]
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