Worm-Like Robot Burrows Its Way Underground For Future Excavations

Future underground exploration teams might comprise a unit of robotic earthworms that can tunnel their way through the muck and dirt. 

Earthworms efficiently tunnel their way through the ground using their specially designed-bodies. Each part contains segments called metameres, fluid-filled portions with a circular muscle encasing them. The metameres allow these animals to contract and expand, and mold their bodies to fit into any area it is trying to move through.

In addition, they use these bristle-like grippers called setae to dig through soil. This versatility caught the team’s eye and led to the robot’s fluid design.

Professor Barbara Mazzolai and her IIT-stituto Italiano di Tecnologia team connected five “peristaltic soft actuators” (PSAs) via a soft elastomer skin and an inner bellows pipe, which acts like a dryer vent hose. A viscous fluid moves between these compartments and recreates the slinky movement worms do to inch across a surface.

The fluid contracts and expands—like the worm—to get it to move and change shape so it can fatten up and slim down to accommodate its space. Friction pads stand in for setae to allow the robot to burrow through soil.

The original paper was published in Scientific Reports.

[via New Atlas and IIT-stituto Italiano di Tecnologia / EurekAlert, images via IIT-stituto taliano di Tecnologia / EurekAlert]