Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Soft Mechanics & Smart Manufacturing, Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China.
Laboratory for Soft Machines & Electronics, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States of America.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2022 Jul 8;17(5). doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/ac7492.
Soft robots have attracted increasing attention due to their excellent versatility and broad applications. In this article, we present a minimally designed soft crawling robot (SCR) capable of robust locomotion in unstructured pipes with various geometric/material properties and surface topology. In particular, the SCR can squeeze through narrow pipes smaller than its cross section and propel robustly in spiked pipes. The gait pattern and locomotion mechanism of this robot are experimentally investigated and analysed by the finite element analysis, revealing that the resultant forward frictional force is generated due to the asymmetric mechanical properties along the length direction of the robot. The proposed simple yet working SCR could inspire novel designs and applications of soft robots in unstructured narrow canals such as large intestines or industrial pipelines.
由于其出色的多功能性和广泛的应用，软体机器人受到了越来越多的关注。在本文中，我们提出了一种最小设计的软爬行机器人（SCR），能够在具有各种几何/材料特性和表面拓扑的非结构化管道中进行稳健的运动。特别是，SCR 可以挤过比其横截面小的狭窄管道，并在带刺的管道中稳健地推进。通过有限元分析实验研究和分析了该机器人的步态模式和运动机制，结果表明，由于机器人长度方向上的不对称机械性能，产生了向前的摩擦力。所提出的简单而有效的 SCR 可以为软机器人在大肠或工业管道等非结构化狭窄通道中的新颖设计和应用提供灵感。
