Inchworm-inspired soft robot with controllable locomotion based on self-sensing of deformation

Inchworm-inspired robots have become a prominent fixture in bionic research, mainly owing to the hotspot's focus on manufacturing actuating materials and bionic structures. An inchworm can crawl stably along a contact surface using gait control, achieved through muscle actuation and accurate perception of its crawling posture. Currently, posture perception is an important aspect often neglected by inchworm-inspired robots. Inspired by the stable crawling behavior of the inchworm, this paper proposes a crawling soft robot with electrically driven artificial muscle, sensing ability, and key parts of the anisotropic friction unit that can sense and control crawling behavior. The electric-driven artificial muscle comprises a liquid crystal elastomer and electric heating film, which can achieve low-voltage actuating deformation. The sensing ability is based on a carbon nanotube-based mesh-like structure, which can accurately monitor deformation. The robot uses the anisotropic friction unit to move forward during crawling. The crawling gait of the inchworm-inspired soft robot is accurately detected through sensing and perception. The fuzzy control system achieves the precise control of crawling step gait. Crawling using accurate perception and feedback control opened a new way of researching soft crawling robots.