Soft robotic systems have gained widespread attention due to their inherent flexibility, adaptability, and safety, making them well-suited for varied applications. Among bioinspired designs, earthworm locomotion has been extensively studied for its efficient peristaltic motion, enabling movement in confined and unstructured environments. Existing earthworm-inspired robots primarily utilize pneumatic actuation due to its high force-to-weight ratio and ease of implementation. However, these systems often rely on bulky, power-intensive electronic control units, limiting their practicality. In this work, we present an electronics-free, earthworm-inspired pneumatic robot utilizing a modified Pneumatic Logic Gate (PLG) design. By integrating preconfigured PLG units with bellow actuators, we achieved a plug-and-play style modular system capable of peristaltic locomotion without external electronic components. The proposed design reduces system complexity while maintaining efficient actuation. We characterize the bellow actuators under different operating conditions and evaluate the robots locomotion performance. Our findings demonstrate that the modified PLG-based control system effectively generates peristaltic wave propagation, achieving autonomous motion with minimal deviation. This study serves as a proof of concept for the development of electronics-free, peristaltic soft robots. The proposed system has potential for applications in hazardous environments, where untethered, adaptable locomotion is critical. Future work will focus on further optimizing the robot design and exploring untethered operation using onboard compressed air sources.

翻译：软体机器人系统因其固有的柔韧性、适应性和安全性而受到广泛关注，使其适用于多种应用场景。在仿生设计中，蚯蚓运动因其高效的蠕动模式被深入研究，能够在受限和非结构化环境中实现移动。现有的蚯蚓仿生机器人主要利用气动驱动，因其高力重比和易于实现的特性。然而，这些系统通常依赖笨重且高功耗的电子控制单元，限制了其实用性。本研究提出了一种无电子元件的蚯蚓仿生气动机器人，采用改进型气动逻辑门（PLG）设计。通过将预配置的PLG单元与波纹管驱动器集成，我们实现了一种即插即用式模块化系统，无需外部电子元件即可完成蠕动运动。所提出的设计在保持高效驱动的同时降低了系统复杂性。我们表征了波纹管驱动器在不同工作条件下的性能，并评估了机器人的运动表现。研究结果表明，基于改进型PLG的控制系统能有效生成蠕动波传播，实现偏差最小的自主运动。本研究为开发无电子元件的蠕动式软体机器人提供了概念验证。所提出的系统在危险环境中具有应用潜力，其中无缆、适应性强的运动至关重要。未来工作将聚焦于进一步优化机器人设计，并探索使用机载压缩空气源实现无缆操作。