Biomimetic printable hexapod robot driven by soft actuator

摘要

This paper presents the preliminary design of a biomimetic printable hexapod robot driven by soft actuators. The robot mimics the insect's design with six legs and shows the capability of versatile locomotion on flat terrains by using alternating tripod gait. The soft and multiple degree-of-freedom (multi-DOF) actuators based on dielectric elastomer provide required motions of the robot with a simple mechanism based on antagonistic configuration. The fabrication of the robot is effectively implemented by 3D printing method. In addition, a control system is built to provide various locomotion and walking speeds for the robot and its operation is demonstrated.