Non-contact magnetic driving bioinspired Venus flytrap robot based on bistable anti-symmetric CFRP structure

The Venus flytrap takes advantage of its bistability to generate rapid closure motion for capturing its prey. A bioinspired Venus flytrap robot with bistable artificial leaves is presented in this paper. Non-contact electromagnetic driving method is proposed to actuate the Venus flytrap robot’s artificial leaves, which are made of anti-symmetric carbon fiber reinforced prepreg (CFRP) cylindrical shells. Magnetic force is generated by using the electromagnet and applied on the shell’s curve edge to unbend the shell, and then the bending process transmits from one edge to the whole surface. The required magnetic force for the snap-through process of the bistable CFRP structure is determined from experimental test and compared with the result of finite element simulation. The test of the snap-through process of the Venus flytrap robot show that the Venus flytrap robot can generate a rapid snapping motion by the electromagnet actuation.