Preliminary research of a novel soft robot with three locomotion modes

Abstract

Many researchers have developed some soft robots which mimic the mollusks movements having power ability to interact with their environments, but these soft robots usually have only one locomotion mode, which cannot effectively take into account the movement efficiency and the environment adaptability simultaneously. This paper presents the design of a novel soft robot which has three locomotion modes; namely, rolling, Omega crawling and vermiculation. It can effectively give consideration to the high efficiency for the rolling, the strong obstacle climbing capability for the Omega crawling and the capacity passing through a narrow space for the vermiculation. By controlling the body deformation and the connection mechanism of the head and the tail separation, we can realize the three locomotion modes and their switching. Firstly, we present the principle of three locomotion modes and how to switch them, and then the detailed structure design of the soft robot is delivered. Secondly, the initial simulation and experiment for the rolling locomotion are fulfilled to verify the feasibility of the soft robot, as the rolling locomotion is most difficult to realize in three locomotion modes.