Columbia University researchers have created a bizarre untethered soft robot that moves using hair clip technology, or in other words, transitioning between two states without using much energy. The design resembles a hair clip in that a piece of semi-rigid, flexible plastic is bent so that the two open ends are close to one another before being fastened together.
When a small electric servo motor applies force to the strip of plastic, it transitions from one state to the other, thus allowing its frame to serve as a form of propulsion. This makes the soft robot quite simple mechanically and very cost efficient. The researchers also used this same technology to create a robotic fish that was able to swim at 2.0 body lengths per second.
- Build, code and play: Kids assemble 635 snap-together pieces into a working robot, then explore mechanics, problem-solving and creative thinking...
- Two ways to control: Use the included 2.4 GHz remote or companion app to drive forward, backward, left and right, rotate 360 degrees and create...
- Interactive motion: Drive the tracks and move the head with the remote. Manually adjust the shoulders, arms, elbows and eyebrows to create expressive...
The influence of factors including actuation frequency, substrates, tethering/untethering, and symmetric/asymmetric actuation is explored with experiments. Based on previous work, this paper further demonstrated the potential of HCM in addressing the speed problem of soft robots,” said the researchers.
