ABSTRACT: Soft morphing robotics making use of smart material and based on biomimetic principles are capable of continuous locomotion in harmony with its environment. Since these robots do not use traditional mechanical components, they can be built to be light weight and capable of a diverse range of locomotion. This paper illustrates a flexible smart phone robot made of smart soft composite (SSC) with inchworm-like locomotion capable of two-way linear motion. Since rigid components are embedded within the robot, bending actuators with embedded rigid segments were investigated in order to obtain the maximum bending curvature. To verify the results, a simple mechanical model of this actuator was built and compared with experimental data. After that, the flexible robot was implemented as part of a smart phone robot where the rigid components of the phone were embedded within the matrix. Then, experiments were conducted to test the smart phone robot actuation force under different deflections to verify its load carrying capability. After that, the communication between the smart phone and robot controller was implemented and a corresponding phone application was developed. The locomotion of the smart phone robot actuated through an independent controller was also tested.

Keywords: Smart phone robot, Shape memory alloy, Smart soft composite, Inchworm-like locomotion