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Researchers in our lab are developing worm-inspired robots for various applications. What started as hard-bodied robots for surface applications has evolved into soft-bodied design for underground use.
Research Highlights
Research Highlights
Image adapted from Dikici et al. 2024 in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
Soft Robot with Multimodal Locomotion
This 3D-printed soft robot benefits from its nodal honeycomb structure and its distributed actuation to achieve five locomotion modes: peristalsis, sidewinding, sideways translations, turning-in-place, and anguilliform. The robot provides a versatile solution for various applications, including search and rescue operations, pipeline inspections, and space missions.
Image adapted from Dorgan et al. 2023 in Frontiers and Robotics in AI.
Application of Soft Animal Burrowing in Robotics
Study shows four major challenges that soft body crawlers must overcome underground. By understanding these challenges, engineers can adapt the biological systems to their robotic systems.
Figure Description From the Publication:
Photos of worm-inspired robots. (A) Pneumatic origami, dual-anchor robot (reproduced from Figure 4 of Jiang and Pei (2021) with permission). (B) Peristaltic crawling robot comprising fabric skin over servomotors (Kandhari et al., 2019b). (C) Undulating, worm-inspired robot crawling up between vertical walls with small undulations acting as anchors (reproduced from Zarrouk et al. (2016) with permission). This image was rotated to align with other images in the figure; the robot is moving vertically (toward the left) (D) Peristaltic robot with paired expanding and elongating segments moving through a tube underwater (toward the right) (Fang et al., 2021). (E) Peristaltic robot made from printed metamaterials with chaetae-like extensions added to create anisotropic friction (Dikici et al., 2022).
Image adapted from Muff et al. 2023 in Advanced Materials.
Modular Design of a Worm-Like Robot
Unlike other worm-like robots with rigid components that limit their compliance, this design implements electrothermally activated polymer bilayer actuators and Timoshenko model-inspired segments to create waveform patterns, allowing the robot to move through peristaltic locomotion.
Beyond the Lab...
Beyond the Lab...
Background
Currently, techniques such as open trenching and conventional horizontal directional drilling are widely used for installing conduits for power, telecommunications, and other utilities. However, these techniques have limitations that have created a critical demand for more efficient and less disruptive methods. The current methodology of trenching and drilling faces significant challenges that hinder its growth and scalability. Additionally, these techniques can disrupt extensive portions of the surface and underlying soil, undoubtedly leading to environmental concerns, safety risks, increased restoration, project costs, extensive labor, infrastructure damage, and substandard work.
Therefore, new methods must not only overcome existing challenges but also the challenges posed by heterogeneous solid conditions and the complexities inherent in subterranean settings.
Solution
The development of a peristaltic robot capable of pulling conduit within it, suitable for use in electrical underground applications.
Impact
Undergrounding is difficult, especially in densely populated areas. Current techniques for undergrounding must navigate around existing surface infrastructure, such as roads, sidewalks, buildings, as well as both mapped and unmapped underground obstacles, such as ducts, pipes, unprotected wires, and abandoned foundations. These factors make the process of undergrounding difficult and disruptive.
Our approach offers innovative solutions to these challenges. First, these robotic soft-body crawlers move through variable soil without complications. Their peristaltic motion eliminates the need to overcome any sliding friction while underground. Additionally, because the conduit’s forward motion is independent of path, it allows for the robot’s ability to move in any direction without disrupting the motion. For underground infrastructure, the robot’s drill would be soft enough to safely operate through these obstacles. Therefore, any impact that would occur between the infrastructure and the robot would not be hazardous, requiring less planning and mapping for operating underground. Lastly, this approach would help shift the business model from expensive, massive undergrounding to one-time investments in small improvements over time.
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