Scientists create earthworm-like robot

The robot is named "Meshworm" for the flexible,meshlike tube that makes up its body.

Scientists have engineered a robot that crawls like an earthworm and can squeeze itself through tight spaces and navigate rough terrain.

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Harvard University and Seoul National University have engineered a highly resilient,soft autonomous robot that moves via peristalsis,crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body.

The robot is named “Meshworm” for the flexible,meshlike tube that makes up its body.

Researchers created “artificial muscle” from wire made of nickel and titanium- a shape-memory alloy that stretches and contracts with heat.

They wound the wire around the tube,creating segments along its length,much like the segments of an earthworm. They then applied a small current to the segments of wire,squeezing the mesh tube and propelling the robot forward.

As an ultimate test of soft robotics,the group subjected the robot to multiple blows with a hammer,even stepping on the robot to check its durability. Despite the violent impacts,the robot survived,crawling away intact.

“You can throw it,and it won’t collapse,” Sangbae Kim from MIT said.”Most mechanical parts are rigid and fragile at small scale,but the parts in Meshworms are all fibrous and flexible,” Kim said in a statement.

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The details of the design were published in the journal IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.