A Cable-Driven Switching-Legged Inchworm Soft Robot: Design and Testing

Inspired from biological systems, researchers are designing soft robots to replace conventional rigid body robots in many applications, including human-machine interaction, manipulation, medical instrumentation and wearable devices. In this paper, a cable-driven switching-legged inchworm-inspired soft robot is presented, in which motion is obtained by deforming the elastic body with actuated cables. The robot features low cost and fast manufacturing, as most of its components and molds for the soft body are 3D-printed, while electrical components are widely accessible on the market. Inspired by inchworm locomotion, we have developed a leg switching approach to control and exploit the difference of friction between the front and back of the robot to achieve basic motion capabilities. An extensive experimental campaign shows that the robot can perform basic movements (linear and angular motions) in multiple conditions as different surface frictions and slopes as well as following generic trajectories.