A Soft Robot for Random Exploration of Terrestrial Environments

Abstract

A swarm of randomly moving miniature robots is an effective solution for the exploration of unknown terrains. However, the deployment of a swarm of miniature robots poses two challenges: finding an adequate locomotion strategy for fast exploration and obstacles negotiation; and implementing simple design and control solutions suited for mass manufacturing. Here, we tackle these challenges by developing a new soft robot with a minimalistic design and a simple control strategy that can randomly propel itself above obstacles and roll on the ground upon landing. The robot is equipped with two propellers that are periodically activated to jump, a soft cage that protects the robot from impacts and allows to passively roll on the ground, and a passive self-righting mechanism for repetitive jumps. The minimalistic control and design reduce the complexity of the mechanics and electronics and are instrumental to the production of a large number of robots. In the paper, the key design aspects of the robot are discussed, the locomotion of a single prototype is experimentally characterized, and improvements of the system for future swarm operations are discussed.

Adaptive tensegrity locomotion: Controlling a compliant icosahedron with symmetry-reduced reinforcement learning

“…Other actuation paradigms include active displacement of masses attached to the bars (Kaufhold et al, 2017) or of a suspended central payload (Caluwaerts et al, 2014). Propulsive payloads such as thrusters (Kim et al, 2016) or propellers (Mintchev et al, 2018) have also been considered. Motion can also be induced by vibrating different rigid elements at different frequencies (Rieffel and Mouret, 2018).…”

Global Vision-Based Formation Control of Soft Robotic Fish Swarm

“…17,18 Inspired by the animal swarms during migration and predation, 19 multiple soft robots can group up a swarm to overcome the limitations of individually low power and capacity. 20,21 A soft robotic fish swarm can outperform complex underwater tasks in a more efficient way, gaining the advantages of robust, cheap, and versatile features. Inspired by the formation behavior of creatures in nature, the formation control of multiple cooperative robots has been recently well studied.…”

Phase Changing Materials-Based Variable-Stiffness Tensegrity Structures

“…12 Examples of such tensegrity systems include robots with embodied intelligence, [13][14][15][16][17] bio-inspired manipulators, 18,19 soft modular robots, 20,21 and soft deployable robots. 22 However, in most of these case studies, tensegrity structures are characterized by a predefined and fixed stiffness. In only a few investigations, variable stiffness is addressed by enabling the change of cable pretensioning.…”