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arXiv · 2011.06749

A Legged Soft Robot Platform for Dynamic Locomotion

Boxi Xia·Jiaming Fu·Hongbo Zhu·Zhicheng Song·Yibo Jiang·Hod Lipson
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Abstract

We present an open-source untethered quadrupedal soft robot platform for dynamic locomotion (e.g., high-speed running and backflipping). The robot is mostly soft (80 vol.%) while driven by four geared servo motors. The robot's soft body and soft legs were 3D printed with gyroid infill using a flexible material, enabling it to conform to the environment and passively stabilize during locomotion on multi-terrain environments. In addition, we simulated the robot in a real-time soft body simulation. With tuned gaits in simulation, the real robot can locomote at a speed of 0.9 m/s (2.5 body length/second), substantially faster than most untethered legged soft robots published to date. We hope this platform, along with its verified simulator, can catalyze the development of soft robotics.

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Boxi Xia, Jiaming Fu, Hongbo Zhu, Zhicheng Song, Yibo Jiang, Hod Lipson. 2020-11-13. A Legged Soft Robot Platform for Dynamic Locomotion. https://doi.org/10.1109/icra48506.2021.9561018

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