When creating the PATRICK robot, the developers were inspired by nature - they took the behavior of a starfish as a basis,
“This work was a natural continuationthe previous work of our laboratory to create soft robots using muscle wires instead of electric motors, ”said one of the researchers who conducted the study. "We were inspired by snake-tails, very similar to a starfish."
Researchers set out to develop softa robot that would perform simple missions under water. But the development also helped to understand the behavior of the snaketail underwater crawling. To reproduce its ability to walk underwater, PATRICK robots were not tied to external equipment, as this interferes with free movement.
</ p>PATRICK has five limbs driven inmovement of coils with wires. They are made of metal, which has several advantages, including high flexibility at room temperature and unique heating behavior. When an electric current is supplied to it, the metal quickly heats up and returns to the form it acquired in the past.
“We use these shape-changing coils asa kind of “muscle,” causing the robot’s legs to bend in the right directions, ”Patterson said. “The robot is mainly made of silicone, which makes it very flexible and waterproof.”
In addition, the robot literally feelsenvironment and chooses in which direction to move independently. To achieve this, the researchers developed a structure that allows the robot to communicate with devices outside of the water while it is submerged, via wireless communication.