Application of Magnetic Smart Fluids to Bio-robotics

Abstract

　Bio-robotics is a research field that learns from the structural and control systems acquired by living organisms in the process of evolution and makes use of them in robotics. When imitating living organisms, it is still difficult to completely imitate their components such as muscles and skeletal structures, and trial and error is being carried out by applying various methods. Magnetic smart fluids are also attracting attention in bio-inspired robotics because not only they are liquids but also able to generate displacements and their properties by an external magnetic field. In this paper, we explain the earthworm-type robot and the variable viscoelastic joint system which is a bio-inspired robot using magnetic smart fluid.