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Studying the Neural Basis of Adaptive Locomotor Behavior in Insects
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Elastic-instability-enabled locomotion.

Amit Nagarkar1, Won-Kyu Lee1, Daniel J Preston1

  • 1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|February 19, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study demonstrates a soft, shape-changing robot that uses pneumatic actuation and elastic instabilities to achieve locomotion on land and in water. This bioinspired design offers controllable movement and adaptability for novel robotic applications.

Keywords:
bucklingelastic instabilitylocomotion

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Area of Science:

  • Robotics and Bio-inspired Engineering
  • Soft Matter Physics
  • Nonlinear Dynamics

Background:

  • Locomotion in organisms arises from symmetry-breaking actions.
  • Understanding minimal physical principles for self-propelled motion is crucial for robotics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To demonstrate a minimal physical system for locomotion using elastic instabilities.
  • To explore shape-changing soft robots capable of land and water movement.
  • To investigate the principles of symmetry breaking for generating directed motion.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing a thin circular sheet actuated by pneumatic pressure to induce nonlinear shape changes via buckling instability.
  • Analyzing the resulting polarized, bilaterally symmetric cone for locomotion.
  • Conducting experiments to demonstrate directional control and navigation in confined spaces.

Main Results:

  • A soft, cone-shaped structure capable of walking on land and swimming in water was created.
  • Locomotion was achieved through asymmetric interaction with the environment (anisotropic friction and directed inertial forces).
  • Observed scaling laws for speed as a function of actuator size, shape, and actuation frequency.

Conclusions:

  • Harnessing elastic instabilities in soft structures provides a novel approach for driving locomotion.
  • This method enables the design of adaptable, shape-changing robots for various environments.
  • The principles demonstrated are applicable to bio-inspired machines across multiple scales.