Paper-thin Robot

Imagine a piece of plastic cloth or mesh that crawls around like a worm or slug, bending itself upward to pull its hind side towards its midpoint, then extending its front half forward, thus taking one small slug step.

This unconventional robot would be lined with a lattice of "muscles" which would contract and expand along its length and width to produce annelid-like locomotion. The muscles could be made of the "molecular muscle" polymer that MIT's ISN [see link] is developing for the US Army [see link]. Or it could use the more readily available "Muscle Wires" that I found at [see link].

What would this thin, slow-crawling robot be good for? I don't know!--I have yet to think of a killer app. I guess it could crawl underneath doorways and such. Since it doesn't use motors it would perhaps be a relatively energy-efficient robot. With some solar cells it could inch around forever on sun power. I suppose you could design it in such a way that it could fold itself into one of those awesome paper helicopters [see link] and you could drop them out of planes to softly spin and float down to earth. Maybe the muscle lattice could also be used to wrap itself around things and grip them, thus imparting the robot with climbing abilities. One could attach floating devices to a side, and then in an aquatic environment the opposite side would sink, orienting the robot vertically and allowing for a fishlike side-to-side swimming motion. Or you could build a really really big one and it could bend itself from a folded piece of cloth into a tent-like structure for instant shade and shelter.