Crab-inspired robot uses fabric-stretching legs to bury itself

New Atlas | Oct 17, 2022 at 8:20 PM
  • The tiny Pacific mole crab (Emerita analoga) has a unique talent.
  • Like the crab that inspired it, the robot digs vertically through granular media utilizing its anisotropic legs – anisotropy is the property which allows a material to exhibit different characteristics when moving in different directions.
  • As is the case with the crab, the robot digs by alternately sweeping with all of the legs on one side of its body, then all of the legs on the other.