Peristaltic crawling robot with flexible helical deformation mechanism

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a soft peristaltic crawling robot that can move in and around tubes of various inner diameters, focusing on peristaltic motion of earthworms. This paper describes the design and fabrication of a helically deformed mechanism. The proposed mechanism consists of soft torsional deformable units and a wire-driven unit. The motion of the constructed soft robot is verified through experiments.