Active 3d woven robots carry heavy loads and resist damage
Active 3D weaves for load-bearing and damage-resilient locomotion
Robotics
Summary
Flexible woven materials are great for making soft robots but usually can't carry heavy loads. The authors designed a way to weave active materials into strong, three-dimensional shapes that are stiff along their length yet easy to bend where needed. These woven robots can carry objects many times their own weight and still move around even after being squashed hard. Their design also helps the robots keep working well even if parts get damaged.
What this means in practice
- •For robotics engineers: Build lightweight, flexible robots that can carry heavy loads and continue to move after damage using modular 3D woven designs.
- •For wearable device designers: Create strong yet flexible wearable devices and exoskeletons that integrate load bearing and damage resilience from 3D woven active materials.
Authors
Guowei Wayne Tu, Evgueni T. Filipov
Abstract
The craft of weaving, where different materials are interlaced, has tremendous potential for creating active and functional systems for use in soft robots, prosthetics, wearables, exoskeletons, and more. These textile-like systems are flexible and safe for human-machine interaction; however, this inherent flexibility limits their ability to carry loads, which is essential for many robotic functions. In this work, we introduce a general framework for integrating active materials into three-dimensional (3D) woven shells to create robotic structures that combine high axial stiffness for load bearing, low bending stiffness for efficient actuation, and system-level resilience for damage tolerance. These woven robots can be modularly assembled from 'woven corners', a fundamental unit of 3D woven structures. We use eigenvalue calculations to identify load bearing and actuation mechanisms of the 3D woven structures, and use that information to make five different robots capable of locomotion. We demonstrate that these 3D woven robots can locomote carrying loads 70 times their self-weight, and can maintain repeatable performance even after being subjected to extreme compression. This work is a pathway toward the design, manufacturing, and simulation of future 3D woven robotic systems where load bearing, high stiffness, active functional deformation, locomotion, and system-level resilience are all needed.