Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers have partnered with the City of Worcester to develop a lizard-like soft robot that can creep into walls, ductwork, and pipes to perform inspections and three-dimensional mapping tasks that could be dangerous or impossible for humans.
Funded by a $50,000 National Science Foundation grant, the team – Cagdas Onal, Paul Mathisen, Yunus Telliel, and Berk Calli – collaborated with students and city officials to design the slender and deformable robot, which can get into tight spaces much less invasively than current methods allow.
The team built the prototype robot – an “origami” design made of plastic, 3D-printed, and laser-machined parts, custom circuit boards, a miniature computer, sensors, a few metal parts and motors – and tested it in locations across the city that included City Hall and the Worcester Senior Center. [Read more…] about Worcester Polytechnic invents robot lizard to ‘sneak into small spaces’
