Title
Insect-scale fast moving and ultrarobust soft robot.
Abstract
Mobility and robustness are two important features for practical applications of robots. Soft robots made of polymeric materials have the potential to achieve both attributes simultaneously. Inspired by nature, this research presents soft robots based on a curved unimorph piezoelectric structure whose relative speed of 20 body lengths per second is the fastest measured among published artificial insect-scale robots. The soft robot uses several principles of animal locomotion, can carry loads, climb slopes, and has the sturdiness of cockroaches. After withstanding the weight of an adult footstep, which is about 1 million times heavier than that of the robot, the system survived and continued to move afterward. The relatively fast locomotion and robustness are attributed to the curved unimorph piezoelectric structure with large amplitude vibration, which advances beyond other methods. The design principle, driving mechanism, and operating characteristics can be further optimized and extended for improved performances, as well as used for other flexible devices.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1126/scirobotics.aax1594
SCIENCE ROBOTICS
DocType
Volume
Issue
Journal
4
32
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
2470-9476
10
0.94
References 
Authors
0
13
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yichuan Wu1100.94
Justin K. Yim2122.45
Jiaming Liang3101.27
Zhichun Shao4100.94
Mingjing Qi5101.27
Junwen Zhong6100.94
Zihao Luo7100.94
Xiaojun Yan8100.94
Min Zhang9100.94
Wang Xiao-Hao10175.97
R. S. Fearing111518387.11
Robert J. Full12100.94
Liwei Lin1312228.76