In the USA, a caterpillar robot was created that can crawl under the door (3 photos + 1 video)

Roboticists at North Carolina State University have developed soft robot, the movement of which resembles the movement of a caterpillar. He can move forward, backward and squeeze through cracks, and in the future can become an indispensable assistant to search and rescue and medical services.





The body of the "caterpillar" consists of two polymer layers, differently heat-responsive: the top layer expands under the influence of heat, and the bottom is compressed. By selectively applying electric current to the system from silver nanowires embedded in the top layer can be adjusted degree of bending of the robot and control its movement.



Scientists conducted an experiment that proved that the caterpillar robot will be able to crawl under a very low doorway - 30 mm and only 3 mm high. They believe that the refinement of their invention (adding sensors and other technologies) will speed up the start of its operation in real conditions.

“We drew inspiration from the biomechanics of the caterpillar to simulate the curvature of the robot body, and used heaters from nanowires to control this curvature and control the movement - said one of the project leaders Yong Zhu. — Creation of soft robots, which can move in two different directions is one of the important topics in soft robotics. Built-in heaters allow us control which sections bend and how much they bend are bent."



The results of the study "Soft crawling robot caterpillar with distributed programmable thermal drive” were published in the journal Science Advances.