An agile multimodal microrobot with architected passively morphing wheels.

ABSTRACT: Multimodal microrobots are of growing interest due to their capabilities to navigate diverse terrains, with promising applications in inspection, exploration, and biomedicine. Despite remarkable progress, it remains challenging to combine the attributes of excellent maneuverability, low power consumption, and high robustness in a single multimodal microrobot. We propose an architected design of a passively morphing wheel that can be stabilized at distinct geometric configurations, relying on asymmetric bending stiffness of bioinspired tentacle structures. By integrating such wheels with electromagnetic motors and a flexible body, we develop a highly compact, lightweight, multimodal microrobot (length ~32 mm and mass ~4.74 g) with three locomotion gaits. It has high motion speed (~21.2 BL/s

SUBMITTER: Lai Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11654700 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature