A walking soft robot driven by electromagnetism inside the body

Abstract

Existing magnetically driven soft robots mainly rely on external electromagnetic, leading to a substantial energy consumption due to the requirement of a large external magnetic field. Moreover, the precise control of these soft robots relies on electric current, making them highly susceptible to disturbances and deviations induced by minute variations in the current. To overcome these challenges, we propose and evaluate a novel approach employing a miniature walking soft robot empowered by its internal electromagnets. The overall robot size is 18 mm × 6 mm × 12 mm (length × height× width). This design enables the robot to achieve precise and stable motion using a 240-mA current with a 6 V low voltage. In addition, the incorporation of specially designed sheet-leg mechanism with varying degrees of friction facilitates the transformation of linear motion into an effective forward gait. This paper outlines the principles and control strategies of the robot, illustrates the robot fabrication process, at the same time verifies the structural integrity through experimental validation. Further evaluations include comprehensive analysis of the robot’s gait and speed. The results show that the robot attains a speed of 2.86 mm s–1. This study marks a stride towards the realization of a fully autonomous, unrestrained, cost-effective, and energy-conserving magnetic soft robot.