A Legged Soft Robot Platform for Dynamic Locomotion

TL;DR

This paper introduces an open-source quadrupedal soft robot platform capable of dynamic locomotion, achieving high speeds and passive stabilization on various terrains, supported by real-time simulation.

Contribution

It presents a mostly soft, 3D-printed quadrupedal robot with a verified real-time simulation, enabling faster and more versatile soft robot locomotion research.

Findings

Robot reaches 0.9 m/s speed, faster than most similar robots.

Soft body design allows conforming to multi-terrain environments.

Simulation effectively predicts real-world locomotion performance.

Abstract

We present an open-source untethered quadrupedal soft robot platform for dynamic locomotion (e.g., high-speed running and backflipping). The robot is mostly soft (80 vol.%) while driven by four geared servo motors. The robot's soft body and soft legs were 3D printed with gyroid infill using a flexible material, enabling it to conform to the environment and passively stabilize during locomotion on multi-terrain environments. In addition, we simulated the robot in a real-time soft body simulation. With tuned gaits in simulation, the real robot can locomote at a speed of 0.9 m/s (2.5 body length/second), substantially faster than most untethered legged soft robots published to date. We hope this platform, along with its verified simulator, can catalyze the development of soft robotics.