'We Wanted To Make A Robot That Could Squeeze Through Holes And Change Its Shape'

The muscled Meshworm prototype mimics annelid locomotion. "If you don’t have legs, you can propel yourself by deforming your body. Earthworms do this through peristaltic locomotion: The muscles in one body segment contract while others relax, which creates a traveling wave that moves them forward. Our robot, Meshworm, moves this way, using wires for muscles. To make a muscle segment, we twist the wire into a long, narrow spring, and then wrap the spring into a tube shape. After that, we l...