A Biomimetic Vertebraic Soft Robotic Tail for High-Speed, High-Force Dynamic Maneuvering

2025-09-24

AI Summary

Existing robotic tails face a fundamental trade-off between rigidity (enabling high output force but compromising safety) and softness (ensuring safety yet suffering from insufficient force and speed). This work proposes a bioinspired vertebral soft robotic tail that integrates pneumatic soft actuators with a passive, jointed spinal architecture, effectively decoupling load-bearing and actuation functions to overcome the inherent speed and force limitations of conventional soft actuators. A kinematic-dynamic model incorporating vertebral geometric constraints is formulated and experimentally validated. The prototype achieves a peak angular velocity of 670°/s, maximum inertial force of 5.58 N, and torque of 1.21 N·m—representing over a 200% improvement over spine-free soft tail designs. The tail has been successfully deployed on high-speed steering vehicles, obstacle-crossing platforms, and quadrupedal robots, significantly enhancing stability and maneuverability of agile mobile systems.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Manipulation
• Natural Language Processing: Safety and Robustness
• Computer Vision: Low Level & Physics-based Vision

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Agentic search

Abstract

Robotic tails can enhance the stability and maneuverability of mobile robots, but current designs face a trade-off between the power of rigid systems and the safety of soft ones. Rigid tails generate large inertial effects but pose risks in unstructured environments, while soft tails lack sufficient speed and force. We present a Biomimetic Vertebraic Soft Robotic (BVSR) tail that resolves this challenge through a compliant pneumatic body reinforced by a passively jointed vertebral column inspired by musculoskeletal structures. This hybrid design decouples load-bearing and actuation, enabling high-pressure actuation (up to 6 bar) for superior dynamics while preserving compliance. A dedicated kinematic and dynamic model incorporating vertebral constraints is developed and validated experimentally. The BVSR tail achieves angular velocities above 670°/s and generates inertial forces and torques up to 5.58 N and 1.21 Nm, indicating over 200% improvement compared to non-vertebraic designs. Demonstrations on rapid cart stabilization, obstacle negotiation, high-speed steering, and quadruped integration confirm its versatility and practical utility for agile robotic platforms.

Problem

• Resolving the trade-off between power and safety in robotic tail designs
• Developing a biomimetic soft robotic tail with high-speed, high-force capabilities
• Creating a compliant pneumatic tail with vertebral reinforcement for agile robotics

Innovation

• Compliant pneumatic body with jointed vertebral column
• Hybrid design decouples load-bearing and actuation
• High-pressure pneumatic actuation up to 6 bar