Scientists at Harvard University have created a flexible robot without any hard parts that can move like a caterpillar or a starfish, and crawl under obstacles.
This was reported in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In Robert Shepherd from Harvard and his colleagues describe a unique set up of ' soft ' robot, which has no hard skeleton.
' Although robotics has made great progress over the past 50 years, robots with rigid structure are still many shortcomings. Some of them are associated with instability when driving on uneven surfaces, some because of the limitations associated with the drive mechanism and the ' joints '' - write the authors.
In addition, metal robots are often distinguished by a large weight and high price, they note.
The creators decided to use the new robot as an example not of the higher animals, and more primitive organisms, which have no internal skeleton - worms, starfish, squid.
The resulting structure, in their opinion, should be simple and inexpensive compared to the ' hard ' robots.
Created by the scientists first example of ' soft ' robot is a ' four- ' flat design, stamped from an elastomeric plastic.
Within these four compartments formed ' bulkhead ', which increases the pressure forcing limbs bent.
Handing in a specific order the compressed air in the ' body ' and each of the four ' legs ' robot, the authors have ensured that the robot moved, and even crawled under the glass through the narrow gap.
Scientists emphasize that they have created the technology allows for very complex movements are very simple means - just a combination of valves, which distinguishes ' soft ' robots from ' hard '.
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