Textile-based shape memory alloy locomotive robot

Abstract

The world of robotics is vast, scoping many areas of science. This paper displays a locomotive textile-based robotic system. Actuated by bending shape memory alloys wires, a unique material that can produce force coupled with displacement at the presence of a stimuli. The robot was designed, fabricated and tested and is able to tumble or roll forward at a speed of 6 mm/s. While most SMA-textile integration is limited to aesthetic purposes and current SMA-textile robotics is a concept of stitching the SMA onto the surface of an existing fabric, this paper breaks the barriers with a completely integrated woven hybrid SMA-textile actuator based designed system.