A robot for navigating an environment through growth is provided. The growing robot has a thin-walled, hollow, pressurized, compliant body that elongates the body by everting from its tip new wall material that is stored inside the body. The robot controls the shape of the body by actively controlling the relative lengths of the wall material along opposing sides of the body allowing steering.

A ship or other large and heavy load may be supported on a fluid cushion comprising a two dimensional array of airbags constrained within elastic mesh compartments (81) and inflated by individual valve assemblies (188, 189, 231 . . . ) which are connected by a grid of airlines and distributed over a flexible web (60) separating respective horizontal layers of the assembly. The ship rests on an upper layer while the compartments of a lower layer are inflated and deflated in sequence to generate a travelling contraction which moves through the fluid cushion to translate its base surface over the ground in any desired direction of travel, with the load gradually moving by fluid pressure in the same direction. The deflated cushion assembly can be stored and deployed on a spool (see FIG. 1-3) rotated by a hydraulic motor. Independent claims are included to the cushion assembly including an elastic or other tension force generating means, the compartmentalized structure, the layered structure, the deployment spool, the distributed valve assemblies, and corresponding methods of operation.

A robot for navigating an environment through growth is provided. The growing robot has a thin-walled, hollow, pressurized, compliant body that elongates the body by everting from its tip new wall material that is stored inside the body. The robot controls the shape of the body by actively controlling the relative lengths of the wall material along opposing sides of the body allowing steering.

A ship or other large and heavy load may be supported on a fluid cushion comprising a two dimensional array of airbags constrained within elastic mesh compartments (81) and inflated by individual valve assemblies (188, 189, 231 . . . ) which are connected by a grid of airlines and distributed over a flexible web (60) separating respective horizontal layers of the assembly. The ship rests on an upper layer while the compartments of a lower layer are inflated and deflated in sequence to generate a travelling contraction which moves through the fluid cushion to translate its base surface over the ground in any desired direction of travel, with the load gradually moving by fluid pressure in the same direction. The deflated cushion assembly can be stored and deployed on a spool (see FIG. 1-3) rotated by a hydraulic motor. Independent claims are included to the cushion assembly including an elastic or other tension force generating means, the compartmentalised structure, the layered structure, the deployment spool, the distributed valve assemblies, and corresponding methods of operation.

An amorphous robot includes a compartmented bladder containing fluid, a valve assembly, and an outer layer encapsulating the bladder and valve assembly. The valve assembly draws fluid from a compartment(s) and discharges the drawn fluid into a designated compartment to displace the designated compartment with respect to the surface. Another embodiment includes elements each having a variable property, an outer layer that encapsulates the elements, and a control unit. The control unit energizes a designated element to change its variable property, thereby moving the designated element. The elements may be electromagnetic spheres with a variable polarity or shape memory polymers with changing shape and/or size. Yet another embodiment includes an elongated flexible tube filled with ferrofluid, a moveable electromagnet, an actuator, and a control unit. The control unit energizes the electromagnet and moves the electromagnet via the actuator to magnetize the ferrofluid and lengthen the flexible tube.

A crawler robot comprising a proximal end section, a distal end section and a central core section, through each section passes a central channel; the distal end section comprises a rigid core surrounding a deformable foot, the proximal end section comprises a rigid core surrounding a deformable foot, and the central core section comprises a deformable annular body surrounding an extension spring, surrounding the annular body is at least one balloon, and wherein fluid carrying conduits are connected to the balloon in the central core section, and to the deformable foot in the distal end section and the deformable foot in the proximal end section.