Octopuses, worms and other invertebrates have become the new source of inspiration for robot creators, interested in flexible machines and even capable of changing shape and size, which makes them very versatile.
Following this line, a team of researchers from the University of Warsaw has developed a robot the size of a caterpillar that moves like this larva does. This 15-millimeter-long bug gets its energy from light, is controlled with a laser, and in addition to crawling across flat surfaces, it climbs slopes, contracts to sneak through narrow openings, and carries loads that exceed ten times its weight.
Its body is made of liquid crystalline elastomers (LCE), a smart material developed by the Lens Institute of the University of Florence that changes when visible light hits it. This type of polymer can be molded into three-dimensional shapes that respond in any way we want to light. Thus, it is possible to create complex structures of LCE manipulable with a laser beam.
See how this caterpillar microrobot moves.
And all this for what? Developing robots that mimic the movements and abilities of flexible and deformable animals will allow the creation of machines capable of operating on rough and difficult terrain – for example, in the rubble of a catastrophe – and with less energy consumption than other robots. If they are also controlled with a relatively cheap and clean tool such as light, the equation is complete: the robotic future will be flexible or it will not be.
According to Piotr Wasylczyk of the University of Warsaw, “Designing flexible soft-material robots opens a new paradigm in the structure, power supply and control of these machines. We are beginning to learn from nature and bring our designs closer to the arising from natural evolution “.
Image: University of Warsaw.
