Design and Fabrication of a Multi-motion Mode Soft Crawling Robot

Abstract

This article proposes a novel pneumatic soft actuator, which can perform bending in different directions under positive or negative air pressure. The actuators are composed of multiple airbags, and the design of the airbags is analyzed. A pneumatic soft robot based on these soft actuators is designed and fabricated by 3D printing technology. This robot consists of three soft multi-bladder actuators, one soft sensor, middle layer, bottom layer, front barb, front feet and rear feet. According to the different positive or negative pressure control of the three soft multi-bladder actuators, the robot can perform both linear, crossing and climbing movements. The soft robot has excellent environmental adaptability and can pass through complex environments by combining three modes of motion. Then, we establish the closed-loop automatic control system using soft sensor. The soft sensor can be stretched and compressed as the soft robot’s movement. Finally, the automatic control system is verified by linear, crossing and climbing movement experiments. Results indicate that the robot can pass through complex environments under the closed-loop control system.