Worms, Waves, and Robots

The Biologically Inspired Robotics group at Case Western Reserve University has developed several innovative designs for a new kind of robot that uses peristalsis, the method of locomotion used by earthworms. Unlike previous wormlike robots, their concept uses a continuously deformable outer mesh that interpolates the body position between discrete actuators. The group summarizes its progress with this soft hyper-redundant robot.