Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have unveiled mCLARI, a tiny shape-shifting robot capable of squeezing through narrow spaces. This quadruped micro-robot boasts a 20mm neutral body length and weighs just 0.97g. It consists of four independently actuated leg modules with 2 degrees of freedom, each driven by piezoelectric actuators.
Its legs are interconnected in a closed kinematic chain, thanks to passive body joints, enabling passive body compliance for shape adaptation to external constraints. Despite being 60% shorter in length and 38% in mass, mCLARI maintains 80% of the actuation power to achieve high agility, compared to its predecessor.
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Additionally, we demonstrate the new capability of passively shape-morphing mCLARI – omnidirectional laterally confined locomotion – and experimentally quantify its running performance achieving a new unconstrained top speed of ∼3 bodylengths/s (60 mms−1 ),” said the researchers.
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