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While animals swim, crawl, walk, and fly with apparent ease, building robots capable of robust locomotion remains a significant challenge. In this review, we draw attention to mechanosensation—the sensing of mechanical forces generated within and outside the body—as a key sense that enables robust locomotion in animals. We discuss differences between mechanosensation in animals and current robots with respect to (1) the encoding properties and distribution of mechanosensors and (2) the integration and regulation of mechanosensory feedback. We argue that robotics would benefit greatly from a detailed understanding of these aspects in animals. To that end, we highlight promising experimental and engineering approaches to study mechanosensation, emphasizing the mutual benefits for biologists and engineers that emerge from moving forward together.

 

Planning locomotion trajectories for legged microrobots is challenging. This is because of their complex morphology, high frequency passive dynamics, and discontinuous contact interactions with their environment. Consequently, such research is often driven by time-consuming experimental methods. As an alternative, we present a framework for systematically modeling, planning, and controlling legged microrobots. We develop a three- dimensional dynamic model of a 1.5 g quadrupedal microrobot with complexity (e.g., number of degrees of freedom) similar to larger-scale legged robots. We then adapt a recently developed variational contact-implicit trajectory optimization method to generate feasible whole-body locomotion plans for this microrobot, and demonstrate that these plans can be tracked with simple joint-space controllers. We plan and execute periodic gaits at multiple stride frequencies and on various surfaces. These gaits achieve high per-cycle velocities, including a maximum of 10.87 mm/cycle, which is 15% faster than previously measured for this microrobot. Furthermore, we plan and execute a vertical jump of 9.96 mm, which is 78% of the microrobot’s center-of- mass height. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first end-to-end demonstration of planning and tracking whole-body dynamic locomotion on a millimeter-scale legged microrobot. 

The impressive locomotion and manipulation capabilities of spiders have led to a host of bioinspired robotic designs aiming to reproduce their functionalities; however, current actuation mechanisms are deficient in either speed, force output, displacement, or efficiency. Here—using inspiration from the hydraulic mechanism used in spider legs—soft‐actuated joints are developed that use electrostatic forces to locally pressurize a hydraulic fluid, and cause flexion of a segmented structure. The result is a lightweight, low‐profile articulating mechanism capable of fast operation, high forces, and large displacement; these devices are termed spider‐inspired electrohydraulic soft‐actuated (SES) joints. SES joints with rotation angles up to 70°, blocked torques up to 70 mN m, and specific torques up to 21 N m kg⁻¹are demonstrated. SES joints demonstrate high speed operation, with measured roll‐off frequencies up to 24 Hz and specific power as high as 230 W kg⁻¹—similar to human muscle. The versatility of these devices is illustrated by combining SES joints to create a bidirectional joint, an artificial limb with independently addressable joints, and a compliant gripper. The lightweight, low‐profile design, and high performance of these devices, makes them well‐suited toward the development of articulating robotic systems that can rapidly maneuver.