Vine-like robot can squeeze into small spaces

A tubular robot prototype that 'grows' like a vine has been developed by mechanical engineers at Stanford University who say it could be used in search and rescue missions.

The team says the robot was inspired by the way natural organisms cover distance by growing, such as vines, fungi and nerve cells.

The design itself is a tube of soft material folded inside itself, like an inside-out sock, that grows in one direction when the material at the front of the tube everts, as the tube becomes right-side-out. Prototypes were made of thin plastic, with the stationary end pumped with pressurised air to trigger the 'growing' movement of the robot. Future versions could be filed with a fluid instead of pressurised air, the teams says.

A proof-of-concept model was tested on a series of obstacles to demonstrate its ability to navigate through small and irregular spaces. As the tendril-like robot grows it is flexible enough to squeeze through areas that would prove inaccessible to other hard-body robots. When manoeuvred through a small gap under a 100 kilogram crate, pumping more air though the tube allowed the robot to lift the crate, demonstrating its potential in search and rescue scenarios.

The researchers now hope to scale the robot much larger and much smaller to see how it performs. They've already built a 1.8 mm version that they say demonstrates how small growing robots could advance medical procedures, such as guiding catheters through the body.

The research was published recently in the journal Science Robotics. — Reuters