Modular crawling robots using soft pneumatic actuators

Abstract

Crawling robots have elicited much attention in recent years due to their stable and efficient locomotion. In this work, several crawling robots are developed using two types of soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs), namely, an axial elongation SPA and a dual bending SPA. By constraining the deformation of the elastomeric chamber, the SPAs realize their prescribed motions, and the deformations subjected to pressures are characterized with numerical models. Experiments are performed for verification, and the results show good agreement. The SPAs are fabricated by casting and developed into crawling robots with 3D-printing connectors. Control schemes are presented, and crawling tests are performed. The speeds predicted by the numerical models agree well with the speeds in the experiments.

Keywords

soft robot / soft pneumatic actuator / kinematic model / crawling robot / modular design

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the reviewers’ comments. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52075180 and U1713207), the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou (Grant No. 201904020020), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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