Design of a Leech-like Peristaltic Crawling Soft Robot

To find a nondestructive and patient-friendly method of intestinal examination, a leech-like soft robot is proposed and designed. The leech-like soft robot consists of two adsorption actuators with a double-layer structure as "legs" and a retractable actuator with a self-binding multiple chambers body, and the peristaltic crawling is achieved by controlling the alternating motion of the two adsorption actuators and the cooperative motion of the retractable actuator. The adsorption characteristics of the adsorption actuator and the regulation mechanism of the retractable actuator are verified by a combination of practical experiments and numerical simulations, and further the motion performance of the robot is verified through the motion of the soft robot in the plane, slope and intestine-like tract, respectively. The experiments show that the maximum adsorption force of the adsorption actuator is up to 3.05 N and the soft robot motion speed is up to 5 mm/s, demonstrating that the robot can achieve nondestructive and controllable movement in an intestine-like environment. In summary, this work is expected to provide a non-destructive and patient-friendly approach for the application in the examination and treatment of intestinal diseases.