Taking inspiration from the spring-loaded motion of parasitic nematodes, a team of engineers from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has created a robot that can leap and reach significant heights without the benefit of legs.
According to the engineers, the 5 inch soft robot can jump 10 feet into the air, which is around the standard height of a basketball hoop. Making this feat possible is that the robot is composed of a silicone rod reinforced with a carbon-fiber spine that enables the robot to mimic the nematode’s self-pinching motion for launching itself forward or backward.
Source: Georgia TechIts developers suggest that this could eventually lead to the development of agile soft robots that navigate diverse terrains by jumping in several directions and at various heights, for applications such as exploration, search-and-rescue missions and robotic mobility in unstructured environments.
To replicate the jumping ability of the nematode, the team developed its Soft Jumping Model (SJModel) robot, which is based on silicone elastomer. Research conducted by the team revealed how slight modifications in the starting body posture of the robot might accurately control jump direction. They reached this conclusion by exploring a variety of beginning positions using numerical modeling, thereby establishing a phase-space that connects initial forms to the ensuing take-off paths.
Further, the research also highlighted how reversible kinks enable force-limited systems to store more elastic energy. Additionally, the team noted that kink deformation in bent objects slows the rise of internal forces as bending increases, thus allowing nematodes — and eventually the nematode-inspired robot — to remain within their muscle force limits while also continuing to bend and store energy until their body latch disengages.
An article detailing the team’s work, “Reversible kink instability drives ultrafast jumping in nematodes and soft robots,” appears in the journal Science Robotics.
For more on the technology, watch the accompanying video, which appears courtesy of Georgia Tech.
