A textile origami snake robot for rectilinear locomotion
Integrating insights from snake biology into soft robotics holds promise for developing adaptive autonomous robots. These innovations can have applications in areas such as search-and-rescue missions, field inspection operations, and space exploration, especially in scenarios demanding navigation through confined spaces where body flexion is not feasible. In this work, the authors learned snakes’ rectilinear locomotion and leveraged origami to design textile-based actuators to create a lightweight, soft robot for friction-assisted locomotion across diverse terrains.