Lecture
Bioinspired soft robots possessing the abilities to move under varous conditions with various power suppliers have been investigated intensively. However, the ability of a soft robot to retain good performances under various conditions and to carry heavy load ramains challenging. Here, we present a simple bioinspired soft robot with high adaptability to geography and large load-carrying ability by the combination of moving pattern of inchworm and anisotropic friction of gecko foot. The driving energy of the soft microrobot is offered by the photothermal expansion/contraction of the muscle of soft microrobot with ultraviolet-visible (UV) light as the contactless power supplier; and the asymmetric friction regulates the moving direction of the robot. We further demonstrate that the soft robot possesses stable and strong moving ability under varying geography (slope, smooth and rough surfaces) and enormous preload (more than 40 times of its body weight). The soft microrobot presented here may pave the way to the potential applications of microrobots in extrem enviroments that normal robots can hardly reach and may also find medical applications.
