Inspired by the growth behavior of plants: biomimetic soft robots that just meet the requirements of use.

Abstract

Soft robots are usually manufactured using the pouring method and can only be configured with a fixed execution area, which often faces the problem of insufficient or wasteful performance in real-world applications, and cannot be reused for other tasks. In order to overcome this limitation, we propose a simple and controllable rather than redesigned method inspired by the bionic growth behavior of plants, and prepare bionic soft robots that can just meet the requirements of use, and transform biological intelligence into mechanical intelligence. Based on finite element method, we establish a theoretical model of soft robot performance. And the experimental platform is designed to conduct experimental research on the prototype of the soft robot. Compared with the results obtained through the theoretical model, it is found out that the experimental bending angle and elongation are slightly smaller than the simulation results. (The maximum error of elongation prediction for soft robots (Fashion 1-4) is 5.7%, 5.9%, 6%, and 6%, and the maximum error of bending angle prediction is 7.1%, 7.5%, 7.6%, and 7.6%, respectively). The high consistence between our theoretical model and the experimental results shows that the theoretical model is applicable to accurately predict the performance of soft robots. It is worth pointing out that this design as proposed in this paper can be extended to the wider field of soft robotics as a generic one.