Porcospino

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Developer - Shahab Edin Nodehi

 

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"Porcospino Flex: A Bio-Inspired Single-Track Robot with a 3D-Printed, Flexible, Compliant Vertebral Column"

by Shahab Edin Nodehi, Luca Bruzzone, Mohammadreza Lalegani Dezaki, Ali Zolfagharian and Mahdi Bodaghi
April 5, 2024

 

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Porcospino 2 (Flex), a bio-inspired single-track robot

Premiered May 3, 2024

This is a bio-inspired single-track ground mobile robot for surveillance and inspection in unstructured environments characterized by narrow spaces and specially designed for operating inside pipelines. Tis Robot is a single-track robot inspired by nature and featuring a meta-material structure. In the earlier version of Porcospino, the main body was composed of a chain of vertebrae and two end sections linked by flexible joints, but the excessive use of materials in 3D printing and the resulting weight of the robot posed challenges, ultimately leading to a decrease in its overall efficiency and per-formance. Porcospino Flex is manufactured through the fused deposition modeling process using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and thermoplastic polyurethane, featuring a singular meta-material structure in the vertebral column. The adoption of a lattice structure in the main body of the Porcospino Flex leads to a substantial increase in performance, reducing its weight from 4200 g to 3600 g. Furthermore, the decrease in weight leads to a reduction in material usage and waste, making a substantial contribution to the sustainability of the robot. with 120-degree steering capabilities. All the exterior parts of the robot are moving, and it has some pins that enable the robot to move on very soft terrain. The symmetry of Porcospino brings another useful functional feature: it can continue operating after a 180° capsize; moreover, if it falls on its flank (90° capsize), it can restore the correct position by combining lateral flexion, lifting on the track ends, and track motion.

 

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Article "Porcospino Flex is a Spined Crawler Robot Built for Tight Spots and Rough Terrain"

by Jackson Chung
December 31, 2025

 

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Article "Video: Bio-inspired robot crawls pipes and rubble using 3D-printed spine, no extra motors"
The robot uses a single 3D-printed TPU spine with 120°-bending grooves, reducing weight and absorbing impacts without extra motors.

by Jijo Malayil
January 1, 2026