Buckling-resilient jumping soft robot using helical arranged elastic fiber inspired by nematodes.

In nature, few species of nematodes exhibit undulation and jumping movements by utilizing longitudinal muscles to store energy in their tissue array during bending after the buckling limit. Inspired by this unique natural behavior, a buckling-resilient jumping soft robot has been designed helical elastic fiber arranged within a cylinder structure capable of storing elastic energy even during buckling. A 3D printing latch mechanism has been incorporated to swiftly release the stored elastic energy at peak contraction. The movement of the soft robot is recorded using high speed camera and studies the kinematics parameter, such as trajectories and instantaneous velocities. We further evaluated the robot's jumping performance by examining geometrical parameters, such as the variation in aspect ratios, and materials composition. We measured the nonlinear stress and strain behaviour and assessed the robot's compressibility and deformation. We analyzed the stacking coefficient for different aspect ratio in experimental and validated with numerical simulations. Through finite element simulation, we built a braided helical elastic cylinder and studied the response under uniaxial compression by varying parameters effects of pitch angle and number of fibers. Through experiment and simulation, this research advances soft robotics and highlights the potential of bioinspired design and advanced materials in robotics engineering.