A Caterpillar That Moves Around With Robotic Legs

A roboticist, Takuya Umedachi, built a caterpillar-like robot after studying real life caterpillars. What fascinated the engineers and roboticists was a caterpillar’s ability to navigate the environment by molding itself into different awkward positions when necessary, and they can do all this while only having a tiny and unsophisticated brain.

The roboticist had to get creative in order to mimic the movements of a caterpillar, so the team used pulleys, wire and a motor to start off. What resulted was a twenty three centimeter robotic caterpillar with three different contracting segments making up its body, as well as several squishy legs. When the legs of the caterpillar bend, a sensor is activated that causes the robot’s legs to move. The caterpillar only needs to use its legs whenever it bends from an obstacle in its course. Despite the coolness of this robotic caterpillar toy, Umedachi admits that there are still limitations and more work needs to be done to improve the robot’s locomotion.

What practical purpose do you think a robotic caterpillar could serve?