Bioinspired Soft Robots with Intrinsic Strain Sensing

The stimulus responsive soft structures, with biological organs like intrinsic sensing, are needed for controlled movements in soft robotics. This video shows the bio-inspired inchworm and earthworm like soft structures with intrinsic strain sensing achieved by embedded graphite paste based sensor material. The strain sensor used in the developed soft robot exhibits a record stretchability (900%), and sensitivity (10^3 for about 200% strain and of the order of 10^5 for 700% linear strain). With tiny permanent magnets incorporated at the ends of sensorized soft structures, it is possible to achieve the sensory feedback-based inchworm and earthworm like controlled movements. The presented results is likely to boost the prospects of self-sensing in soft robots and advance the field towards cognitive soft robotics. The details of this work are available in our paper 'Bioinspired Inchworm and Earthworm like Soft Robots with Intrinsic Strain Sensing' (DOI: 10.1002/aisy.202100092), published in Advanced Intelligent Systems.

[shani]

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