Soft-bodied animals, such as earthworms, are capable of contorting their body to squeeze\nthrough narrow spaces, create or enlarge burrows, and move on uneven ground. In many\napplications such as search and rescue, inspection of pipes and medical procedures, it may be useful\nto have a hollow-bodied robot with skin separating inside and outside. Textiles can be key to such\nskins. Inspired by earthworms, we developed two new robots: FabricWorm and MiniFabricWorm.\nWe explored the application of fabric in soft robotics and how textile can be integrated along with\nother structural elements, such as three-dimensional (3D) printed parts, linear springs, and flexible\nnylon tubes. The structure of FabricWorm consists of one third the number of rigid pieces as\ncompared to its predecessor Compliant Modular Mesh Worm-Steering (CMMWorm-S), while the\nstructure of MiniFabricWorm consists of no rigid components. This article presents the design of\nsuch a mesh and its limitations in terms of structural softness. We experimentally measured the\nstiffness properties of these robots and compared them directly to its predecessors. FabricWorm and\nMiniFabricWorm are capable of peristaltic locomotion with a maximum speed of 33 cm/min (0.49\nbody-lengths/min) and 13.8 cm/min (0.25 body-lengths/min), respectively.
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