A Novel Spider-Inspired Soft Robot with Pneumatically Actuated Locomotion

Overview

This research project was designed to create a soft robot with locomotive capabilities that are well suited for unpredictable natural environments using spider-inspired pneumatic actuation. Soft robotics, which involves the use of soft, flexible materials in robotics, has the potential to mimic unique biological mechanisms to a degree that traditional, hard robotics cannot. One such biological mechanism involves the use of hydraulic compression by arachnids to extend their legs. The hemolymph, the blood-adjacent substance of spiders, works as a hydraulic fluid, and when blood pressure increases in spiders, the hemolymph works to extend the legs without the help of extensor muscles. In this project, a soft robot was built on a similar premise, using pneumatic actuation to move the ’legs’, or actuators, of the robot. The robot was built with eight pneumatic actuators, with the legs organized as a spider with four pairs of legs. Each pair of silicone-based legs, which are enhanced versions of the PneuFlex actuator by (Deimel & Brock, 2013), is divided into a ’passive’ layer and an ’active’ layer. To facilitate locomotion, the actuators have been redesigned as shorter and rounded. Using programmatic control of the segments, the robot can perform basic maneuvers and movement and has achieved a maximum speed of 6 cm/s. The next steps involve improving the robot to carry minimal cargo and maneuver flexibly around obstacles in a changing environment, as well as redesigning actuators to have short air chambers as ’joints’ to silicone sections, allowing for easier and more efficient locomotion.

Competition history

• AJAS 2026 Category not listed

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