The “earthworm” robot that digs in the sand, a technology that could be the key to the exploration of other planets

Two American universities have come together to create a ‘robot worm‘capable of moving in underground environments, reaching a new frontier for robotics, which has already conquered the air, the The water, and the area Of the earth.

To do this, the engineers of the UC Santa Barbara and the Georgia Institute of Technology They followed the signals of animals and plants that evolved to navigate underground spaces, and with that they designed a gentle, fast and controllable robot that can dig in sand.

This technology not only enables new applications for rapid underground movements, specific Yes a little intrusive, but also feel the mechanical bases for new types of robots.

“The biggest challenges in moving on the ground are simply the forces involved”, said Nicholas Naclerio, a graduate research student in the lab of UC Santa Barbara professor of mechanical engineering Elliot Hawkes. While air and water offer little resistance to objects passing through them, he explained, the underworld is another story.

“If you try to move on the ground, you have to push back the ground, the sand or any other support”, said Naclerio.

Fortunately, The natural world provides many examples of underground navigation in the form of plants and fungi building underground networks and animals that have mastered the ability to dig directly through granular media. Gaining a mechanical understanding of how plants and animals have mastered underground navigation opens up many possibilities for science and technology, according to Daniel Goldman, Dunn family physics professor at Georgia Tech.

“The discovery of the principles by which various organisms successfully swim and burrow in granular media may lead to the development of new types of mechanisms and robots which can take advantage of these principles ”, he said, adding: “And, conversely, the development of a robot with such capabilities may inspire new animal studies and indicate new phenomena in the physics of granular substrates.”

According to its developers, this worm robot, has a wide variety of applications, even in the alien robotics, because it can be used in tasks that require shallow excavation through dry granular media, such as soil samples, underground utility installation and erosion control.

For this, the team of scientists is already working on a project with NASA to develop burrows on the Moon and in celestial bodies more distant. “We believe that digging has the potential to open up new avenues and enable new capabilities for alien robotics,” said lead author of the study, Elliot Hawkes.

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