Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have created a lightweight, low-cost, soft quadruped robot that maintains system control and movement via pneumatic loops and does not require any electronic drive, according to Deep Tech. "This work represents an important step towards fully autonomous, electronicless walking robots," said Dr Dylan Drotman of the University of California, San Diego.
The soft robot, by contrast, is controlled by a pneumatic circuit consisting of tubes and soft valves that move based on instructions or signals sensed from the environment. The robot is powered by the spine and has computing power similar to mammalian reflexes. The team was inspired by neural circuits found in animals that generate rhythms to control movements like walking and running.
The team added components needed for advanced functions, such as walking, to the oscillators and sensors for pneumatic valves. Pneumatic valves are cheaper, lighter, and easier to manufacture than electromechanical valves, and are often used to control soft robots. Overall, the research is a breakthrough for low-cost, soft robots that can be used in mines and magnetic resonance imaging machines where electronic devices cannot. The team says they hope to build on this research to improve the robot's gait so that it can walk freely on more rugged terrain.
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