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Soft Robot 'Grows' Like a Vine Across Long Distances to Search & Rescue

Inspired by natural organisms that cover distance by growing - like vines, fungi, and nerve cells – mechanical engineers at Stanford University have demonstrated a soft, growing robot. The team created tube-like prototypes that can move through various challenging obstacles, travel toward a designated goal, and even grow into a free-standing structure. Their 'vinebot' could serve a wide range of purposes, particularly in the areas of search and rescue and medical devices. The robot is basically a tube of soft material folded inside itself, like an inside-out sock, that grows in one direction when the material at the front of the tube everts, as the tube becomes right-side-out. In the prototypes, the material was a thin, cheap plastic and the robot body everted when the scientists pumped pressurized air into the stationary end. In other versions, fluid could replace the pressurized air. "The body can be stuck to the environment or jammed between rocks, but that doesn't stop the robot because the tip can continue to progress as new material is added to the end," says project leader Elliot Hawkes, explaining a major design advantage.

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Automation Defense Materials Medical Motion Control Robotics Test & Measurement

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING] Stanford University. We were trying to come up with a new way for robots to explore their environment, moving away from robots that walk or locomote to robots that can grow like plants or cells. The basic mechanism of the device is called eversion. So it basically turns inside out as the material

    00:00:30 emits from the tip. By doing so, we allow more material to be fed through the center. And that allows us to grow to very long lengths and can follow very convoluted paths through very difficult-to-reach places. We implement it here with pneumatic pressure-- so just air pressure to make it extend. And you could also do it with hydraulics, so using a pressurized fluid.

    00:00:53 It can have a power supply that doesn't need to move. It can just stay stationary, unlike a locomoting robot. That gives us a lot more flexibility in terms of weight as we move through our environments. This version of the robot had a turning mechanism that worked by [? maintaining ?] a particular side. We have a camera that's kept up the tip, and it's used to sense the environment just like the human eye does. And based on that, a goal destination

    00:01:20 can be designated by a user to grow the robot to. The body can be stuck to the environment or jammed between rocks, and then the new material just comes out the end. One instance, we made a little obstacle course. We also had a demonstration of lifting a large crate. We could grow under it and use the air pressure to lift the crate off the ground. As you're growing the device, you can pull cables along. So this is an application for wiring ceilings

    00:01:45 or the walls or floors of a house. You can think about scaling it up for, say, search and rescue applications. We can make it take the shape of an antenna so you can enable communications. We can make it sneak through very small crevices in order to get access to places where people can't go. And also, we can deliver material through the center of it-- whether it be a sensor or water, for example--

    00:02:10 to reach a disaster victim. Our device is currently made out of cheap plastic. It was available and easy to prototype with. We're looking now at making it out of more robust, airtight waterproof fabrics. The main point of this first paper on the idea is just showing proof of concept. It's a whole new form of mobility. I think the biggest challenge is so much the scope of what it can be.

    00:02:32 For more, please visit us at stanford.edu.