Chinese Researchers Unveil Revolutionary Shape-Shifting Humanoid Robot
In a remarkable breakthrough in robotics, researchers in China have developed a lightweight humanoid robot that defies conventional design principles. Unlike traditional rigid robots, this innovative creation stretches, shrinks, and alters its outline dynamically to navigate diverse environments. At its full height, it stands taller than a person's waist, yet when deflated, it collapses into a compact bundle resembling fabric and joints. Weighing just 4.5 kilograms, the robot is built around inflatable structures instead of metal frames, prioritizing physical adaptability over speed or precision.
Bioinspired Design: Mimicking Human Bone Growth
Instead of relying on metal columns, the robot incorporates growable linkages inspired by human bone development. Each limb features an air-filled chamber wrapped in fabric, cables, and lightweight guides. As air pressure increases, the limb extends while maintaining alignment; when pressure decreases, it shortens without collapsing. This design allows each linkage to stretch several times its original length, providing structural integrity under load while keeping the overall mass low. This lightweight nature significantly influences how the robot interacts with its surroundings and nearby individuals.
Versatile Mobility: From Crawling to Floating
The robot's shape-shifting capabilities enable it to increase its height from under half a meter to over 1.3 meters, narrow its body, and lower itself to squeeze through small openings. In tests, it successfully navigated gaps that would typically halt most humanoid robots. When deflated, the entire system fits into a small box, from which it can walk out and reinflate autonomously. Although these transformations are not rapid or seamless, they allow the robot to access spaces usually avoided by rigid machines.
Walking with soft, inflatable legs introduces instability, as the limbs bend slightly under weight, shifting the robot's balance. To counteract this, researchers use higher air pressure and minor motor adjustments, resulting in a cautious, slow gait with pauses and corrections. At shorter heights, the robot becomes stiffer and slightly quicker, embracing its structural nature rather than fighting against it.
According to the research article "Bioinspired growable humanoid robot with bone-mimetic linkages for versatile mobility," the robot can also crawl by reconfiguring its legs and lowering its body. This motion emerges from a combination of motor actions and inflation adjustments, reducing friction in some areas while increasing it in others. With an external air supply, crawling speed improves noticeably; without it, progress is minimal. The motion feels improvised, akin to shifting weight rather than executing a programmed stride.
Aquatic and Safety Advantages
With a significant portion of its volume being air, the robot floats easily on water. When equipped with a waterproof covering, it can carry loads heavier than its own weight while remaining buoyant. In aquatic environments, its legs move in a pattern resembling a human breaststroke, and the inflatable upper body helps maintain an upward angle for better movement. Adding fins and weights enables surface traversal, albeit slowly and deliberately, expanding the robot's operational environments.
The robot's soft, compliant design also enhances safety and durability. It can fall, collide with objects, or be handled roughly without causing injury or structural damage. Impact tests reveal lower forces reaching internal components compared to rigid designs. Some movements, like kicking, store energy in the flexible limbs and release it suddenly, though this is not tightly controlled. While the design raises questions about precision and efficiency, it suggests a new balance between control and structure, one that does not demand neat outcomes.
