Leech‐Inspired Amphibious Soft Robot Driven by High‐Voltage Triboelectricity

Abstract

Abstract Leech locomotion, characterized by alternating sucker attachment and body contraction provides high adaptability and stability on complex terrains. Herein, a leech‐inspired triboelectric soft robot is proposed for the first time, capable of amphibious movement, climbing, and load‐carrying crawling. A high‐performance triboelectric bionic robot system is developed to drive and control electro‐responsive soft robots. Its core components include: i) a leech‐inspired soft robot (LSR) made from segmented dielectric elastomer muscles. ii) The triboelectric sucker produces anisotropic frictional forces. iii) The multi‐channel high‐voltage output triboelectric nanogenerator (HDC‐TENG) effectively drives the LSR. iv) The high‐voltage triboelectric control unit adapted for the HDC‐TENG enables flexible LSR control. Using the scalable structure of the dielectric elastomer muscles enables the LSR to achieve a maximum crawling speed of 0.39 body lengths per minute on land (45 mm min −1 ) and 0.22 body lengths per minute in liquid (30.5 mm min −1 ). It can also carry a payload of 11.55 grams on acrylic while crawling. This research provides a sustainable and promising new solution for self‐powered high‐voltage energy sources suitable for electro‐responsive soft robots.