Design and Fabrication of a Multi-actuator Soft Robot Inspired by Young Tiger Beetle

A multi-actuator soft robot is designed and fabricated to simulate the crawling, steering and occlusion movement of the young tiger beetle. Its tail is equipped with a multi-bladder soft actuator to realize the forward movement, its neck is equipped with a fiber reinforced bending actuator to realize the steering movement, and its head is driven by a shape memory alloy (SMA) spring to realize the occlusion motion. Finally, experiments are carried out to imitate a young tiger beetle to capture a tiny red fruit, and results show that complex motions of the young tiger beetle can be imitated by the soft robot owing to the multi-actuator design.