A Twisted and Coiled Polymer Artificial Muscles Driven Soft Crawling Robot Based on Enhanced Antagonistic Configuration

Abstract

Twisted and coiled polymer (TCP) actuators are becoming increasingly prevalent in soft robotic fields due to their powerful and hysteresis-free stroke, large specific work density, and ease of fabrication. This paper presents a soft crawling robot with spike-inspired robot feet which can deform and crawl like an inchworm. The robot mainly consists of two leaf springs, connection part, robot feet, and two TCP actuators. A system level model of a soft crawling robot is presented for flexible and effective locomotion. Such a model can offer high-efficiency design and flexible locomotion of the crawling robot. Results show that the soft crawling robot can move at a speed of 0.275 mm/s when TCP is powered at 24 V.