Rolling Locomotion of a Deformable Soft Robot with Built-in Power Source

Locomotion over rough terrain has been achieved mainly by rigid body systems, including crawlers and leg mechanisms. We have proposed an alternative method, which uses deformation of a robot body, and developed a prototype of this deformable robot. But, electric power was externally supplied, such that power supply cables hindered the locomotion of the robot. We describe here the rolling locomotion of a deformable soft robot with an internally supplied power source. We applied dynamic simulation with particle-based modeling to analyze the rolling motion of this robot and found that increased weight had little influence on the kinematic performance of this robot on flat surfaces. Increased weight, however, was effective in providing greater stability on slopes.