Engineers Create Free-Roaming, Shape-Shifting Robot

Are you an engineer who’s looking for inspiration for your latest project? Stanford University Engineers recently created a groundbreaking invention that might be just what you need to get your creative juices flowing. Their free-roaming, shape-shifting robot is a significant step in the ever-evolving robotics industry and a dream come true for many engineers.

In the past, robots have typically needed an outside source to latch onto while moving. This new robot moves, flips, turns, and bends in many unique and innovative ways.

A New Type of Robot

Stanford University’s new robot combines traditional and soft robotics, making it safe to operate and durable. Once it’s inflated, it can change shape and move without air or energy.

To pull this off, they used a combination of three types of robots and called the result an “isoperimetric robot,” because even though its shape changes drastically, the amount of air inside always stays the same. The three types of robots they combined were:

• Soft robots
• Truss robots
• Collective robots

In an interview for Science Robotics, graduate student Nathan Usevitch described the robot’s appearance: “The casual description of this robot that I give people is Baymax from the movie ‘Big Hero 6’ mixed with Transformers. In other words, a soft, human-safe robot mixed with robots that can dramatically change their shape.”

What Makes Their Robot So Unique

A significant limitation with most soft robots is having to attach bulky air compressors to them that you have to plug into an outlet. These bulky air compressors restrict the robot’s movements, making their use limited. Because of this, Stanford University engineers wondered about keeping the same amount of air in the robot at all times to avoid the need for air compressors.

This thought resulted in a human-scale soft robot that can change its shape, as well as grab and handle objects while rolling in controllable directions.

Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Sean Follmer described the approach: “We’re basically manipulating a soft structure with traditional motors. It makes for a really interesting class of robots that combines many of the benefits of soft robots with all of the knowledge we have about more classic robots.”