Miscellaneous

We have developed several innovative designs for a new kind of robot that uses a continuous wave of peristalsis for locomotion, the same method that earthworms use. Because constant-velocity peristaltic waves form due to accelerating and decelerating segments, it has been often assumed that this motion requires strong anisotropic ground friction. However, our analysis shows that with uniform, constant velocity waves, the forces that cause accelerations within the body sum to zero. Instead, transition timing between aerial and ground phases plays a critical role in the amount of slippage, and the final robot speed.

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This robotic concept uses a braided mesh that can be continuously deformed to create smooth waves of motion. The improvements in kinematics result in a much faster and effective motion. You can learn more at http://www.peristalticmayhem.com

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We have developed several innovative designs for a new kind of robot that uses peristalsis, the method of locomotion used by earthworms. Unlike previous wormlike robots, our concept uses a continuously deformable outer mesh that interpolates the body position between discrete actuators. In this video we summarize our progress with this soft hyper-redundant robot.
This video won the "Best Video" award at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA ‘12): icra2012.org/awards
Boxerbaum, A.S., Horchler, A.D., Shaw, K.M., Chiel, H.J., Quinn, R.D., (2012) Worms, Waves, and Robots: The Worm Turns… and Runs, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA ‘12), 3537–3538, St. Paul, MN, May 14–18 dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2012.6224805

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