Design and development of an electronics-free earthworm robot

TL;DR

This paper introduces an innovative electronics-free earthworm-inspired soft robot that uses modified pneumatic logic gates for autonomous peristaltic locomotion, reducing complexity and enhancing potential applications in hazardous environments.

Contribution

It presents a novel modular pneumatic robot design utilizing preconfigured logic gates, eliminating the need for electronic control units in earthworm-inspired soft robots.

Findings

Effective peristaltic wave propagation achieved

Autonomous motion demonstrated with minimal deviation

Reduced system complexity compared to electronic counterparts

Abstract

Soft robotic systems have gained widespread attention due to their inherent flexibility, adaptability, and safety, making them well-suited for varied applications. Among bioinspired designs, earthworm locomotion has been extensively studied for its efficient peristaltic motion, enabling movement in confined and unstructured environments. Existing earthworm-inspired robots primarily utilize pneumatic actuation due to its high force-to-weight ratio and ease of implementation. However, these systems often rely on bulky, power-intensive electronic control units, limiting their practicality. In this work, we present an electronics-free, earthworm-inspired pneumatic robot utilizing a modified Pneumatic Logic Gate (PLG) design. By integrating preconfigured PLG units with bellow actuators, we achieved a plug-and-play style modular system capable of peristaltic locomotion without external electronic components. The proposed design reduces system complexity while maintaining efficient actuation. We characterize the bellow actuators under different operating conditions and evaluate the robots locomotion performance. Our findings demonstrate that the modified PLG-based control system effectively generates peristaltic wave propagation, achieving autonomous motion with minimal deviation. This study serves as a proof of concept for the development of electronics-free, peristaltic soft robots. The proposed system has potential for applications in hazardous environments, where untethered, adaptable locomotion is critical. Future work will focus on further optimizing the robot design and exploring untethered operation using onboard compressed air sources.