LUBRIBOT: A sustainable soft robot facilitating non-contact adhesion and directed locomotion by vibration induced lubrication flow

Robots are today directly or indirectly a part of most humans’ lives; they clean houses, move and process biological material for the food industry, help increase the quality of life of elderly and sort waste material intended for recycling, to name but a few examples. The technological solutions for both conventional and soft-roboics rely on direct physical contact to enable adhesion and locomotion, perhaps the to two most fundamental modalities in robotics. In this project, we will develop a sustainable non-contact robot by utilising vibration induced lubrication, allowing detailed control over adhesion and locomotion without the need for direct physical contact. The project will explore the use of sustainable and bio-degradable materials for the robot and our work is embedded in a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework, including a life cycle assessment. If successful, the project will reveal fundamental principles in soft robotics to enable adhesion and locomotion without physical contact as well as guidelines for the potential use of sustainable materials.

Today, the technological solutions for both conventional and soft robotics rely on direct physical contact to enable adhesion and locomotion, the two most fundamental modalities in robotics. In the LUBRIBOT project, we aim to overcome these limitations and will develop a sustainable non-contact robot utilising vibration induced lubrication, allowing detailed control over adhesion and locomotion without the need for direct physical contact. It is a radical step in the technological development as it relies on a new working principle that has the potential to pave the way for a new generation of soft robotic design. At the heart of the project lies a modulation of lubrication flow through oscillations of the robot’s adhesion cup, where we will use multifunctional materials that are bio-degradable. The success of the project requires convergence of different emerging technologies including micro-scale technology for surface patterning, advanced multifuctional materials, robotics, computational and data driven research and sensor development. LUBRIBOT has a simple design based on a combination of a soft adhesion cup and a vibrating motor, allowing it to be cheaply manufactured. A fundamental understanding of the coupled effects between vibrations, elastic deformation of the soft material and the lubricating flow will allow design of controlled adhesion and locomotion. A computational toolbox will be developed to mimic the robotic behaviour and predict its optimal operating conditions. With the increasing use of robots brings a social responsibility to develop these in a sustainable manner. Combining life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecodesign principles with the technological aspects of design in this early phase of development will enable LUBRIBOT to be innovative and groundbreaking in the use of sustainable materials for soft robotics. Our research methodology is embedded in an RRI framework, where our project group will benefit from interdisciplinary viewpoints.