🤖 AI Summary
Conventional soft robots rely on centralized controllers and sensor–computation–actuation closed loops, limiting autonomy, energy efficiency, and robustness. Method: This work introduces a controller-free, purely physical paradigm for autonomous locomotion by designing soft pneumatic self-oscillating limbs. A single tubular structure, driven by constant airflow, achieves high-frequency stepping at 300 Hz; spontaneous synchronization across multiple limbs emerges via physical coupling between limb dynamics and environmental interaction. Fluid-mechanical modeling and body–environment dynamical analysis underpin the design. Contribution/Results: The system demonstrates environment-responsive autonomous behaviors—including obstacle avoidance, adaptive amphibious gait transition, and phototaxis—for the first time in such a purely physical soft robot. Compared to state-of-the-art soft robots, it achieves orders-of-magnitude higher locomotion speed while operating with decentralized control, ultra-low power consumption, and exceptional mechanical robustness—establishing a new principle and implementation pathway for embodied autonomous motion.
📝 Abstract
Animals achieve robust locomotion by offloading regulation from the brain to physical couplings within the body. In contrast, locomotion in artificial systems often depends on centralized processors. Here, we introduce a rapid and autonomous locomotion strategy with synchronized gaits emerging through physical interactions between self-oscillating limbs and the environment, without control signals. Each limb is a single soft tube that only requires a constant flow of air to perform cyclic stepping motions at frequencies reaching 300 hertz. Physical synchronization of several of these self-oscillating limbs enables locomotion speeds that are orders of magnitude faster than those of comparable state-of-the-art robots. Through body-environment dynamics, these seemingly simple devices exhibit autonomy, including obstacle avoidance, amphibious gait transitions, and phototaxis.