Diversified and Untethered Motion Generation Via Crease Patterning from Magnetically Actuated Caterpillar-Inspired Origami Robot

Untethered annelids-inspired soft robots can be used in space-confined compliant interactions where remote actuation is necessary. In contrast to their fully-soft counterparts, incorporating origami concepts can streamline modeling and control while maintaining compliance. However, more comprehensive untethered locomotions from a single deployable robot remain research challenges, and there are only limited motion generation mechanisms available. This article presents the design and actuation of a caterpillar-inspired biomimetic origami robot prototype. We created an open triangular spring model by the programmable origami backbone for its stability and tunable elasticity. Remotely actuation with internal and external permanent magnets can achieve various types of origami terrestrial locomotion. The prototype can deform and compress up to 26.7% of its original length, and offer six different types of locomotion capabilities, demonstrating its versatility. A description of the design, programmable crease analysis, and actuation method of the robot is provided in this article. We further analyzed and demonstrated its various motion and functional capabilities and validated various performance parameters, such as speed and force bearing capabilities. The normalized velocity of the proposed prototype (0.10 to 0.15) is comparable to most of the speeds achieved by similar motions in other representative works as covered in the article, demonstrating that versatile motions can be achieved without sacrificing speed performance.