From Coils to Crawls: A Snake-Inspired Soft Robot for Multimodal Locomotion and Grasping

He Chen; Zhong Chen; Zonglin Liu; Jinhua Xiong; Qian Yan; Teng Fei; Xu Zhao; Fuhua Xue; Haowen Zheng; Huanxin Lian; Yunxiang Chen; Liangliang Xu; Qingyu Peng; Xiaodong He

doi:10.1007/s40820-025-01762-9

From Coils to Crawls: A Snake-Inspired Soft Robot for Multimodal Locomotion and Grasping

He Chen
, Zhong Chen^*
, Zonglin Liu
, Jinhua Xiong
, Qian Yan
, Teng Fei
, Xu Zhao
, Fuhua Xue
, Haowen Zheng
, Huanxin Lian
, Yunxiang Chen
, Liangliang Xu
, Qingyu Peng^*
, Xiaodong He^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Astronautics

Harbin Institute of Technology
Dongfang Electric Academy of Science and Technology Co. Ltd
Suzhou Research Institute of HIT

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

A tunable initial coiling structure soft robot (ICSBot) has been developed by combining theoretical calculations, finite element analysis, and direct ink writing technology. By mimicking the prey-handling behavior of snakes, ICSBot functions as a coiling gripper, capable of dynamic uncoiling, object grasping, and controlled release. By simulating the multimodal movement of snakes, ICSBot demonstrated sidewinding locomotion to navigate unstructured environments, accordion locomotion to navigate narrow tubes, and winding climbing locomotion to traverse tubular structures under near-infrared light radiation.

Original language	English
Article number	243
Journal	Nano-Micro Letters
Volume	17
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01762-9
State	Published - Dec 2025

Keywords

Coiling deformation
Coiling grasping
Multimodal locomotion
Multistimuli-response
Untethered biomimetic robots

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10.1007/s40820-025-01762-9

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title = "From Coils to Crawls: A Snake-Inspired Soft Robot for Multimodal Locomotion and Grasping",

abstract = "A tunable initial coiling structure soft robot (ICSBot) has been developed by combining theoretical calculations, finite element analysis, and direct ink writing technology. By mimicking the prey-handling behavior of snakes, ICSBot functions as a coiling gripper, capable of dynamic uncoiling, object grasping, and controlled release. By simulating the multimodal movement of snakes, ICSBot demonstrated sidewinding locomotion to navigate unstructured environments, accordion locomotion to navigate narrow tubes, and winding climbing locomotion to traverse tubular structures under near-infrared light radiation.",

keywords = "Coiling deformation, Coiling grasping, Multimodal locomotion, Multistimuli-response, Untethered biomimetic robots",

author = "He Chen and Zhong Chen and Zonglin Liu and Jinhua Xiong and Qian Yan and Teng Fei and Xu Zhao and Fuhua Xue and Haowen Zheng and Huanxin Lian and Yunxiang Chen and Liangliang Xu and Qingyu Peng and Xiaodong He",

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doi = "10.1007/s40820-025-01762-9",

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T2 - A Snake-Inspired Soft Robot for Multimodal Locomotion and Grasping

AU - Chen, He

AU - Chen, Zhong

AU - Liu, Zonglin

AU - Xiong, Jinhua

AU - Yan, Qian

AU - Fei, Teng

AU - Zhao, Xu

AU - Xue, Fuhua

AU - Zheng, Haowen

AU - Lian, Huanxin

AU - Chen, Yunxiang

AU - Xu, Liangliang

AU - Peng, Qingyu

AU - He, Xiaodong

PY - 2025/12

Y1 - 2025/12

N2 - A tunable initial coiling structure soft robot (ICSBot) has been developed by combining theoretical calculations, finite element analysis, and direct ink writing technology. By mimicking the prey-handling behavior of snakes, ICSBot functions as a coiling gripper, capable of dynamic uncoiling, object grasping, and controlled release. By simulating the multimodal movement of snakes, ICSBot demonstrated sidewinding locomotion to navigate unstructured environments, accordion locomotion to navigate narrow tubes, and winding climbing locomotion to traverse tubular structures under near-infrared light radiation.

AB - A tunable initial coiling structure soft robot (ICSBot) has been developed by combining theoretical calculations, finite element analysis, and direct ink writing technology. By mimicking the prey-handling behavior of snakes, ICSBot functions as a coiling gripper, capable of dynamic uncoiling, object grasping, and controlled release. By simulating the multimodal movement of snakes, ICSBot demonstrated sidewinding locomotion to navigate unstructured environments, accordion locomotion to navigate narrow tubes, and winding climbing locomotion to traverse tubular structures under near-infrared light radiation.

KW - Coiling deformation

KW - Coiling grasping

KW - Multimodal locomotion

KW - Multistimuli-response

KW - Untethered biomimetic robots

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105003858889

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DO - 10.1007/s40820-025-01762-9

M3 - 文章

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JF - Nano-Micro Letters

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ER -

From Coils to Crawls: A Snake-Inspired Soft Robot for Multimodal Locomotion and Grasping

Abstract

Keywords

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