A Peristaltic Bionic Robot Controlled By A Single Elastic-Gasbag *

Abstract

Inspired by the physiological structure and the movement mechanism of the peristaltic organism, a soft peristaltic robot with a bionic foot controlled by a single elastic gasbag is proposed. The robot is easy to control and works efficiently, and its manufacturing cost is low. The structure design and motion mechanism of the soft robot are given. With the help of the ordinary long strip rubber balloon and automatically shrinking spring ring, the robot can complete active extension and passive contraction of the straight motion . Using pneumatic actuators to expand and stretch, the bionic foot is anchored on the contact surface, and then shrinking to complete the creep process. By comparing the influence of bionic foot of industrial clay and 3D printing PLA material on the mobile efficiency, the creeping motion experiments of robots of different sizes are completed. Through analyzing the relationship among the different diameter and the bionic foot materials and the velocity, it is verified that the scheme can be continued and the optimal parameters of the high efficient motion of the soft robot can be obtained. Thus the method is proved to be efficient.