Design and experimental research of the hybrid-driven soft robot

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a soft robot for performing detection, by using a hybrid drive to reach the target point faster and enable the robot to perform the detection task at a relatively fast speed. Design/methodology/approach The soft robot is driven by a mixture of motors and pneumatic pressure, in which the pneumatic pressure is used to drive the soft actuator to bend and the motors to drive the soft robot forward. The careful design of the actuator is based on a finite element simulation using ABAQUS, which combines a constant curvature differential model and the D-H method to analyze the motion space of the soft actuator. Findings The soft robot’s ability to adapt to the environment and cross obstacles has been demonstrated by building prototypes and complex environments such as grass, gravel, sand and pipes. Originality/value This design can improve the speed and smoothness of the motion of the soft robot, while retaining the good environmental flexibility of the soft robot. And the soft robot has good environmental adaptability and the ability to cross obstacles. The soft robot proposed in this paper has broad prospects in fields such as pipeline inspection and field exploration.