Self‐growing Adaptable Soft Robots

摘要

Chapter 15 Self-growing Adaptable Soft Robots Barbara Mazzolai, Barbara Mazzolai Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorAlessio Mondini, Alessio Mondini Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorEmanuela Del Dottore, Emanuela Del Dottore Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorAli Sadeghi, Ali Sadeghi Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this author Barbara Mazzolai, Barbara Mazzolai Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorAlessio Mondini, Alessio Mondini Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorEmanuela Del Dottore, Emanuela Del Dottore Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorAli Sadeghi, Ali Sadeghi Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56015 Pontedera, PI, ItalySearch for more papers by this author Book Editor(s):Hideko Koshima, Hideko Koshima Waseda University, Research Organization for Nano and Life Innovation, 513 Tsurumaki, Tokyo, JapanSearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 November 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527822201.ch15 AboutPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShareShare a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Summary The transfer of robots from inside of factories to the external unstructured world has generated new functional needs in robotics. The adaptation of bodies and behavior become fundamental features to guarantee a safe interaction between robots, humans, and environment, while managing unpredictable conditions. Soft robotics and bioinspiration are relatively new approaches addressing the adaptation in robots by exploiting properties of soft actuators and materials taking inspiration from natural systems. Among many biological models, plants show extraordinary abilities of perception, motion, functional, and morphological adaptation to environmental stimuli. They navigate their surrounding by addition of cells at apical level, reducing friction and energy consumption, thus enabling the exploration of clutter environments and the adaptation of the body through obstacles. Hence, growth is a very interesting feature of plants that has started to inspire a generation of robots with new and unpredictable abilities of movement. Inspired by the peculiar abilities of plants, for the first time in robotics, a growing robot able to create its own body structure has been proposed. The robot exploits the classical approach of fused deposition modeling (FDM) and integrates a customized three-dimensional (3D) printer to enable the growth and push forward an explorative tip. This chapter will guide through the evolution of growing robots deepening in the plant-inspired solutions for environmental exploration and monitoring. The features of this new generation of robots make them suitable for motion in unpredictable, cluttered, and dangerous environments, finding application for monitoring and exploration in agriculture, earth science, and space fields. Mechanically Responsive Materials for Soft Robotics RelatedInformation