陸から海へシームレスに移動できるソフトロボットを研究者が開発

非常に動的な双安定ソフトアクチュエータの使用により、さまざまな移動が可能になります。

多くの動物は、大規模な調整や再構成を必要とせずに、歩く、跳ぶ、這う、泳ぐの間をスムーズに移行できます。

対照的に、ほとんどのロボットはできません。 しかし、カーネギー メロン大学の研究者は、歩行から水泳、ハイハイからローリングなどの動作モードをシームレスに切り替えることができるソフト ロボットを開発しました。

「アクチュエータや複雑さを追加することなく、さまざまなタスクを実行し、その環境に適応できるロボットを開発するために、私たちは自然に触発されました」と、Dinesh K. Patel は述べています。 -コンピュータインタラクション研究所。 「私たちの双安定アクチュエータは、シンプルで安定しており、耐久性があり、動的で再構成可能なソフト ロボティクスに関する将来の研究の基礎を築きます。」

双安定アクチュエータは、形状記憶を含む 3D プリントされた柔らかいゴムでできています。[{” attribute=””>alloy springs that react to electrical currents by contracting, which causes the actuator to bend. The team used this bistable motion to change the actuator or robot’s shape. Once the robot changes shape, it is stable until another electrical charge morphs it back to its previous configuration.

“Matching how animals transition from walking to swimming to crawling to jumping is a grand challenge for bio-inspired and soft robotics,” said Carmel Majidi, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department in CMU’s College of Engineering.

For example, one robot the team created has four curved actuators attached to the corners of a cellphone-sized body made of two bistable actuators. On land, the curved actuators act as legs, allowing the robot to walk. In the water, the bistable actuators change the robot’s shape, putting the curved actuators in an ideal position to act as propellers so it can swim.

“You need to have legs to walk on land, and you need to have a propeller to swim in the water. Building a robot with separate systems designed for each environment adds complexity and weight,” said Xiaonan Huang, an assistant professor of robotics at the University of Michigan and Majidi’s former Ph.D. student. “We use the same system for both environments to create an efficient robot.”

The team created two other robots: one that can crawl and jump, and one inspired by caterpillars and pill bugs that can crawl and roll.

The actuators require only a hundred milliseconds of electrical charge to change their shape, and they are durable. The team had a person ride a bicycle over one of the actuators a few times and changed their robots’ shapes hundreds of times to demonstrate durability.

In the future, the robots could be used in rescue situations or to interact with sea animals or coral. Using heat-activated springs in the actuators could open up applications in environmental monitoring, haptics, and reconfigurable electronics and communication.

“There are many interesting and exciting scenarios where energy-efficient and versatile robots like this could be useful,” said Lining Yao, the Cooper-Siegel Assistant Professor in HCII and head of the Morphing Matter Lab.

Reference: “Highly Dynamic Bistable Soft Actuator for Reconfigurable Multimodal Soft Robots” by Dinesh K. Patel, Xiaonan Huang, Yichi Luo, Mrunmayi Mungekar, M. Khalid Jawed, Lining Yao and Carmel Majidi, 18 November 2022, Advanced Materials Technologies.
DOI: 10.1002/admt.202201259