A soft humanoid robot capable of shapeshifting, floating, swimming, flying and even walking on water has been developed by a team of researchers at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Shenzhen, China.
Taking inspiration from human bone traits, GrowHR’s linked structures can extend up to 315% and contract to navigate tight spaces.
Source: Southern University of Science and Technology
The soft humanoid robot, which weighs 9.9 pounds and can almost triple its height, features bone-inspired growable linkages with soft expandable chambers, tensioned cables and rigid adapters, which enable controlled deformation while maintaining stability. Meanwhile, a non-stretchable textile layer offers axial stiffness while a synchronous cable system ensures smooth, uniform extension.
These structures, the team explained, enable the GrowHR to change its size and shape, and to adapt to different tasks and environments.
Specifically, GrowHR can extend its height, contract to explore tight spaces, crawl and maintain balance during intricate movements. Further, GrowHR can crawl at 112.2 mm/min, which is roughly 1,000 times faster than motor-only locomotion. Additionally, the lightweight body of GrowHR allows for floating, swimming, walking on water and flying with the addition of ducted fans or quadrotors.
“The robot manages stability and balance through active control and by adding carbon fiber telescopic linkages,” the researchers added.
GrowHR is detailed in the article, “Bioinspired growable humanoid robot with bone-mimetic linkages for versatile mobility,” which appears in the journal Science Advances.
