A group of Tufts researchers working on building a new type of robot is looking for help from an unusual source: caterpillars.
The goal of the project, led by Professor Barry Trimmer, is to build the world's first soft-bodied robot.
This robot would be able to move fluidly and do many things that machines today cannot.
"What we're trying to do is understand how to incorporate soft materials into machines," Trimmer said. This task has turned out to be very complicated.
Trimmer, who has a Ph.D in neurobiology, first started studying the biology of caterpillars three years ago to try to understand how the ones he has examined can control their fluid movements with a simple brain and how they can move without any joints.
He then hopes to translate these concepts into machines, with the help of engineers. The goal of the project is to make a robot that looks and moves like a caterpillar.
"No one has ever developed a robot made of entirely soft components before," said Michael Simon, a graduate student in biology who is working in the Trimmer lab. "It gets us excited."
There are many potential uses for soft-bodied robots.
Flexible machines could make many dangerous surgeries much safer and less painful. They could also be used to repair space stations by reaching places that astronauts can't, help in hazardous environments such as nuclear reactors, and squeeze into tight spaces.
Daniel Rogers, a Tufts senior majoring in mechanical engineering, has spent the past two summers developing prototypes. He was one of the first students to get involved with the project.
He first learned of Trimmer's project through the Biomedical Research Experiences for Engineering Majors (BREEM) program, which gives undergraduate engineering and computer science majors the opportunity to spend 10 weeks during the summer on biomedical research projects.
"I started off with a spool of wire and a desk," Rogers said. He is currently working on his second prototype, Softbot 2.
In the past two years, the project has grown tremendously. Now, an entire team of mechanical engineers is building on the research, and two students in the field are doing their senior design project on this topic.
A new facility has also been set up to house the project, under the direction of Professor Trimmer. Tufts Biomimetic Devices Laboratory is a new interdisciplinary lab combining tissue engineering, robotics and animal locomotion. Students and professors of both liberal arts and engineering are housed in this building at 200 Boston Avenue.
"The No. 1 thing is that it's interdisciplinary," Rogers said about both the project and the new facility. "It's a new trend that's going on, and Tufts is really leading the way with this."
It may be a long time before the robot is finished. According to Simon, the near future is reserved for making the different components of the robots and then trying to fit them together.
Even so, the rewards for success are tantalizing. "You'd end up with a whole new class of robotic machines," Trimmer said.
