• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Engineering Designer Magazine

Engineering Designer

  • Home
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Sustainability
  • Materials
  • Medical
  • Construction
  • Advertise
  • iED
You are here: Home / Technology / Robot caterpillar demonstrates new approach to locomotion

Robot caterpillar demonstrates new approach to locomotion

March 28, 2023 by Geordie Torr

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a caterpillar-like soft robot that can move forwards, backwards and dip under narrow spaces. The caterpillar-bot’s movement is driven by a novel pattern of silver nanowires that use heat to control the way the robot bends, allowing users to steer the robot in either direction.

Advertisement

‘A caterpillar’s movement is controlled by local curvature of its body – its body curves differently when it pulls itself forward than it does when it pushes itself backward,’ said Yong Zhu, the Andrew A Adams distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State. ‘We’ve drawn inspiration from the caterpillar’s biomechanics to mimic that local curvature and use nanowire heaters to control similar curvature and movement in the caterpillar-bot.

‘Engineering soft robots that can move in two different directions is a significant challenge,’ he continued. ‘The embedded nanowire heaters allow us to control the movement of the robot in two ways: we can control which sections of the robot bend by controlling the pattern of heating in the soft robot and we can control the extent to which those sections bend by controlling the amount of heat being applied.’

Advertisement

The caterpillar-bot consists of two layers of polymer that respond differently when exposed to heat, the bottom layer contracting and the top layer expanding. Embedded within the top layer is a pattern of silver nanowires that includes multiple lead points where researchers can apply an electric current, enabling them to control which sections of the pattern heat up and by how much.

‘We demonstrated that the caterpillar-bot is capable of pulling itself forward and pushing itself backward,’ said postdoctoral researcher Shuang Wu. ‘In general, the more current we applied, the faster it would move in either direction. However, we found that there was an optimal cycle, which gave the polymer time to cool – effectively allowing the “muscle” to relax before contracting again. If we tried to cycle the caterpillar-bot too quickly, the body did not have time to relax before contracting again, which impaired its movement.’

The researchers also demonstrated that the caterpillar-bot’s movement could be controlled to the point where users were able steer it under a very low gap – similar to guiding the robot to slip under a door. In essence, the researchers could control both forward and backward motion as well as how high the robot bent upwards at any point in that process.

‘This approach to driving motion in a soft robot is highly energy efficient and we’re interested in exploring ways that we could make this process even more efficient,’ said Zhu. ‘Additional next steps include integrating this approach to soft robot locomotion with sensors or other technologies for use in various applications – such as search-and-rescue devices.’

The research has been published in Science Advances.

Filed Under: Technology

Advertisement

Primary Sidebar

SUBSCRIBE And get a FREE Magazine

Want a FREE magazine each and every month jam-packed with the latest engineering and design news, views and features?

ED Update Magazine

Simply let us know where to send it by entering your name and email below. Immediate access.

Trending

Designing oyster-based shoreline protection

Engineers designing safer, more effective hydrogen injector for gas turbines

New construction guides aim to reduce risk of future tragedies

Engineers develop 3D-printed wearable sweat sensor

Loughborough University offers experience day for prospective engineering students

Discovery makes possible the optimisation of thermal-energy storage

Perfection is the enemy of design evolution says engineering professor

Engineering students design STEM mobile learning studio

Engineers design sutures that can deliver drugs or sense inflammation

Students conclude baseline design review of their CubeSats

Footer

About Engineering Designer

Engineering Designer is the quarterly journal of the Insitution of Engineering Designers.

It is produced by the IED for our Members and for those who have an interest in engineering and product design, as well as CAD users.

Click here to learn more about the IED.

Other Pages

  • Contact us
  • About us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms
  • Institution of Engineering Designers

Search

Tags

ied

Copyright © 2023 · Site by Syon Media