Peristalsis by pulses of activity

Gorbushin, Nikolai; Truskinovsky, Lev

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2012.07017

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 45 publications

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“…These robots typically comprise multiple actuators, which are precisely sequenced to achieve crawling (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). In an e ort to reduce the complexity of the controls the most diverse phenomena have been harnessed, including mechanical instabilities (12)(13)(14)(15), viscous forces (16), solitory pulses (17,18) and oscillating materials (19,20). However, there still exist unraveled mechanisms that can be investigated and exploited towards this aim.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Topological Solitons Make Metamaterials Crawl

et al. 2022

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In recent years, the ability to propagate topological solitons in mechanical metamaterials has unlocked unpaved paths towards potential applications in wave propagation, mechanical logic, and shape morphing. Here we demonstrate how a multistable metamaterial can harness topological solitons with coupled rotational and translational components, and become, itself, a crawling robot. We start by characterizing the topological solitons via experimental measurements and analysis. We then use their rotational component to produce a favorable gradient of friction between the metamaterial and the underlying substrate. This, in turn, creates locomotion. Previously proposed crawling robots have usually required complex control of multiple actuators. In contrast, our robot can be powered by a single actuator and all features needed for locomotion are embedded in the mechanics, and activated by the topological solitons.

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