Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026

Bioinspired Soft Robot with Incorporated Microelectrodes
Published on: February 28, 2020
Autonomous undulatory serpentine locomotion utilizing body dynamics of a fluidic soft robot
1Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. cdonal@wpi.edu
Abstract:
Soft robotics offers the unique promise of creating inherently safe and adaptive systems. These systems bring man-made machines closer to the natural capabilities of biological systems. An important requirement to enable self-contained soft mobile robots is an on-board power source. In this paper, we present an approach to create a bio-inspired soft robotic snake that can undulate in a similar way to its biological counterpart using pressure for actuation power, without human intervention. With this approach, we develop an autonomous soft snake robot with on-board actuation, power, computation and control capabilities. The robot consists of four bidirectional fluidic elastomer actuators in series to create a traveling curvature wave from head to tail along its body. Passive wheels between segments generate the necessary frictional anisotropy for forward locomotion. It takes 14 h to build the soft robotic snake, which can attain an average locomotion speed of 19 mm s(-1).
Related Concept Videos
Fluid Movement Between Compartments
Buoyancy and Stability for Submerged and Floating Bodies
Planar Rigid-Body Motion
Planar motion is typically divided into three distinct categories. The first is rectilinear translation, demonstrated by a subway train that moves along...
One-Degree-of-Freedom System
A one-degree-of-freedom system is defined by an independent variable that determines its state and behavior. One example of a one-degree-of-freedom system is a simple harmonic oscillator, such as a...

