A biomimetic jumping locomotion of functionally graded frog soft robot

Abstract

Soft robots have the excellent ability of adopting intricate postures and fitting in complex shapes. This paper presents a work in progress of biomimetic soft frog robot having jump locomotion on land and underwater environments. The frog soft robot is fabricated using multilayer composite of shape memory polymer (SMP), shape memory alloy (SMA), and polyurethane. The fabricated soft robot exactly mimics the natural frog jumping behavior. The jump magnitude is controlled using the external signals from a pre-programmed microcontroller. The size of soft robot is 9×3 cm (LxW). The fabrication of frog soft robot could be used to gain a deeper approach into the characteristics of the jumping of frogs. The jumping locomotion is believed to be fast as compared to normal locomotion and thus soft robot can run with high speeds through rough terrains easily.