ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Twisting for soft intelligent autonomous robot in unstructured environments.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed.
- Harvesting environmental circadian oscillations for energy autonomy of soft robots.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Single twistable tendon-driven continuum robots.Nature communications · 2026Article
- High Center-of-Mass, Multi-Legged Soft Robots Powered by Geometrically Encoded Liquid Crystal Elastomer Arc Appendages.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Dual-chirality flexagon linkages with infinite eversion and surface reconfigurability.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Single-parameter programmed thermomechanical actuation via 3D-printed helical director fields in liquid crystal elastomers.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A supramolecular non-mesogenic route towards autonomous liquid crystal elastomer soft robots.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Twirlbot: Tumbleweed-inspired rolling robot.Science advances · 2026Article
- Embodying physical computing into soft robots.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Bioinspired Twisted Artificial Muscles with Enhanced Performance for Underwater Applications.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Elasto-magnetic instabilities for amplified actuation and mechanical memory.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Robotic ray driven by periodic ring snapping.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2025Article
- Reprogrammable snapping morphogenesis in ribbon-cluster meta-units using stored elastic energy.Nature materials · 2025Article
- Thermally Actuated Soft Robotics.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Reprogrammable sequencing for physically intelligent underactuated robots.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Geometrically insensitive deform-and-go liquid crystal elastomer actuators through controlled radical diffusion.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Halogen-Bonded Liquid Crystal Elastomers as Initiator-Free Photochemical Actuators.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Aerial Track-Guided Autonomous Soft Ring Robot.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Article
- Electrically Driven Liquid Crystal Elastomer Self-Oscillators via Rheostat Feedback Mechanism.Polymers · 2025Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Soft robots that can harvest energy from environmental resources for autonomous locomotion is highly desired; however, few are capable of adaptive navigation without human interventions. Here, we report twisting soft robots with embodied physical intelligence for adaptive, intelligent autonomous locomotion in various unstructured environments, without on-board or external controls and human interventions. The soft robots are constructed of twisted thermal-responsive liquid crystal elastomer ribbons with a straight centerline. They can harvest thermal energy from environments to roll on outdoor hard surfaces and challenging granular substrates without slip, including ascending loose sandy slopes, crossing sand ripples, escaping from burying sand, and crossing rocks with additional camouflaging features. The twisting body provides anchoring functionality by burrowing into loose sand. When encountering obstacles, they can either self-turn or self-snap for obstacle negotiation and avoidance. Theoretical models and finite element simulation reveal that such physical intelligence is achieved by spontaneously snapping-through its soft body upon active and adaptive soft body-obstacle interactions. Utilizing this strategy, they can intelligently escape from confined spaces and maze-like obstacle courses without any human intervention. This work presents a de novo design of embodied physical intelligence by harnessing the twisting geometry and snap-through instability for adaptive soft robot-environment interactions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.