Multifunctional soft robot with snap-through joints

4-Module Pneumatic Multifunctional Soft Robot with Snap-Joint Shape Morphing and Retention

This technology is a multifunctional soft robot mechanism that combines four pneumatically driven modules with two snap-through joint sections, allowing the robot to change and maintain its geometric shape using only a single pneumatic control.

Conventional pneumatic network soft robots require continuous air supply to maintain their shape and demand complex inputs, which increases the overall volume and weight of the device.

This technology introduces bistable shell-structured snap joints that use snap-through and snap-back behaviors triggered by critical pressure to lock the robot's physical shape. This enables the implementation of a soft robot capable of dynamic mode switching, such as aligning the four drive modules in a line or deploying them horizontally depending on the control mode. Because it can switch between various movement modes with a single pneumatic input, it offers exceptional competitiveness in environments requiring multifunctionality with limited resources, such as exploration and disaster response robotics.

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Key Features:

• Four drive modules featuring internal spaces that can expand or contract longitudinally via pneumatic pressure, connected in series at both ends.
• Four guide hinges that rotatably connect the joints between adjacent drive modules.
• Two snap-joint sections installed between alternating connection points, capable of snap-through behavior via pneumatic pressure.
• A control unit that individually regulates the pneumatic pressure applied to the four drive modules to change and maintain the robot's shape.

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This invention was developed with support from the Metamorphic Mechanical Systems Research Group of the Ministry of Science and ICT.