Harvard Scientists Create Gumby-like Robot Capable of Squeezing Under Tight Spaces
Posted on November 29, 2011
Harvard Scientists created a bizarre Gumby-like robot that is flexible enough to slide under tight spaces. The robot is composed of soft materials (elastomeric polymers). The robot's design is inspired by animals that do not have hard internal skeletons, such as squid, starfish and worms. The researchers used soft lithography to fabricate a pneumatically actuated robot capable of sophisticated locomotion. The quadrupedal robot uses no sensors. It has five actuators and a simple pneumatic valving system that operates at low pressures (< 10 psi). In the video the robot manages to fit through a narrow opening under a pane of glass using a combination of crawling and undulation gaits. Take a look:
A couple more videos showing the soft robot moving can be found here on the Nature news blog.