Passive crawling of a soft robot

Abstract

In this paper, we describe passive crawling of deformable circular objects. Deformable circular objects crawl stably along a slope with no energy source other than gravity. Such passive crawling provides an efficient locomotion of a soft robot. Additionally, a passive crawling object can climb over a hurdle without any control. This paper explores the passive crawling through physical simulation and experiments. First, we examine the behavior of objects passively along a slope. Second, we analyze passive crawling experimentally. Finally, we formulate the shape of circular objects based on differential geometry for dynamic simulation of a passive crawling.