It鈥檚 not your usual rubber snake: for the first time, a soft-bodied robot is able to slither around powered by air. It can reach a leisurely top speed of 19聽millimetres per second.
The muscles of the prototype, developed by and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are tiny tubes made from soft polymers called elastomers that line the snake鈥檚 four segments.
To mimic a snake鈥檚 motion, an onboard computer in the robot鈥檚 tail controls a compressor that changes air pressure in the elastomer tubes. Air passing through the body creates a travelling wave that increases in amplitude with higher pressure (see video above). Valves at the joints open and close to make the robosnake undulate.
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The team plans to improve the design by developing a soft skin, complete with scales, to create friction without the need for rigid components. Future work will look at how to improve locomotion by incorporating a steering system, and a sensor package to help it negotiate obstacles.
The system is a step forward for soft robots, which promise to be safer to interact with and more adaptive than hard-bodied designs. 鈥淔uture robots have to be similar to biological systems to work well with humans and in real environments,鈥� says Onal.
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