Pipe inspection and maintenance are necessary to prevent economic and casualty losses due to leakage of fluids from damaged pipes. In-pipe soft robots made of highly deformable materials have been proposed to meet the needs, yet most of those comprise multiple segments and require multiple actuators controlled independently, resulting in less compact structures and more demanding control schemes. In this study, we harness the highly nonlinear buckling of elastic ribbons and bioinspired artificial muscles to significantly enhance the crawling capability of a single-actuator soft robot. Our prototype robot consists of a McKibben pneumatic actuator surrounded by three longitudinally arranged elastic ribbons. These tailored ribbons are three-dimensional (3D) printed and can be buckled into highly deformed 3D shapes upon inflation of the actuator. First, we show that the robot exhibits strong anisotropic friction when fully buckled. Then, we demonstrate that by simple open-loop on/off control, our robot achieves robust crawling in horizontal, vertical, bent pipes and even wet pipes partially or filled with water. It can also adapt to pipes with some variations in diameter. Using only one actuator lowers the complexity of robot structure and pneumatic system, offering high potential for new applications at different scales.

中文翻译：

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用于管道内爬行的单执行器软机器人

管道检查和维护是必要的，以防止由于流体从损坏的管道泄漏而造成的经济和人员伤亡损失。已经提出了由高度可变形材料制成的管道内软机器人来满足需求，但其中大多数包括多个部分并且需要独立控制多个执行器，从而导致结构不太紧凑和要求更高的控制方案。在这项研究中，我们利用弹性带和仿生人造肌肉的高度非线性屈曲来显着增强单执行器软体机器人的爬行能力。我们的原型机器人由一个 McKibben 气动致动器组成，周围环绕着三个纵向排列的弹性带。这些定制的丝带是三维 (3D) 打印的，可以在致动器充气时扣成高度变形的 3D 形状。首先，我们展示了机器人在完全扣紧时表现出强烈的各向异性摩擦。然后，我们展示了通过简单的开环开/关控制，我们的机器人可以在水平、垂直、弯曲的管道甚至部分或充满水的湿管道中实现稳健的爬行。它还可以适应直径有一定变化的管道。仅使用一个执行器降低了机器人结构和气动系统的复杂性，为不同规模的新应用提供了巨大的潜力。