Cockroach-like robot compresses to squeeze through horizontal crevices
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029568
IEEE Spectrum : Inspired by the humble cockroach, Kaushik Jayaram and Robert Full of the University of California, Berkeley, have put a new twist on small, multilegged, insect-like robots: a jointed exoskeleton shell. Their compressible robot with articulated mechanisms, or CRAM, has the ability to squish its body down to one-fourth its normal size and squeeze through the narrowest of gaps, all the while continuing to propel itself forward through the use of what the researchers call “body-friction legged crawling.” Such a device could be useful for search-and-rescue attempts through the rubble left by tornadoes, earthquakes, or explosions, according to the researchers’ paper , published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
