Gait-optimized locomotion of wave-driven soft sheets

• Main Authors: Miller, Pearson Whitehead (Author), Dunkel, Joern (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2020-05-28T13:42:22Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Inspired by the robust locomotion of limbless animals in a range of environments, the development of soft robots capable of moving by localized swelling, bending, and other forms of differential growth has become a target for soft matter research over the last decade. Engineered soft robots exhibit a wide range of morphologies, but theoretical investigations of soft robot locomotion have largely been limited to slender bodied or one-dimensional examples. Here, we demonstrate design principles regarding the locomotion of two-dimensional soft materials driven by morphoelastic waves along a dry substrate. Focusing on the essential common aspects of many natural and man-made soft actuators, a continuum model is developed which links the deformation of a thin elastic sheet to surface-bound excitation waves. Through a combination of analytic and numerical methods, we investigate the relationship between induced active stress and self-propulsion performance of self-propelling sheets driven by FitzHugh-Nagumo type chemical waves. Examining the role of both sheet geometry and terrain geography on locomotion, our results can provide guidance for the design of more efficient soft crawling devices.