Leland Stanford Junior University

Margaret M Coad

Mark R Cutkosky

Allison Mariko Okamura

Laura H Blumenschein

Alexander M Gruebele

Nathan Scot Usevitch

Andrew C Zerbe

Rachel Thomasson

Technology is provided for controlling the motion of soft growing robots during retraction to prevent uncontrollable buckling or bending. A double walled flexible tubular robot is provided with an inside wall, an outside wall, and a folded tip. A retraction device located at the folded tip has a routing aperture sized to encompass the inside wall and for routing the inside wall through the retraction device. The retraction device further has a retraction mechanism inside the retraction device to controllably retract material of the inside wall through the routing aperture in the direction away from the folded tip, thereby decreasing the outside wall, creating more inside wall, and as such shortening the length of the flexible robot. This technology enables behaviors, such as (1) growing in one direction, and then retracting and growing in a different direction, and (2) retracting through a confined space without applying force to the environment.

Device to allow retraction of soft growing robots without buckling

A distributed sensor network for soft growing robots is provided. Sensor bands are distributed at discrete intervals along the length of the flexible tube, and the sensor bands each are wrapped circumferentially around the diameter of the flexible tube. Each sensor band has one or more sensors and one or more semi-rigid islands containing a self-contained microcontroller, and one or more communication lines to an aggregator microcontroller located at the base of the soft growing robot communicatively connecting signals from the sensor bands. A casing laminates the distributed sensor network. In one example the encasing has cavities or a tooth geometry to allow bending. The casing is flexible to not hinder the growth of the soft growing robot, yet protecting the distributed sensor network.

Distributed sensor networks deployed using soft growing robots

Growing community of inventors

Mishawaka, IN, United States of America

Margaret M Coad