Twenty-six grants for groundbreaking research projects through Open Competition ENW-XS
- 14 December 2022
The NWO Domain Board Science has awarded 26 applications in the Open Competition Domain Science - XS. The themes vary from harnessing tidal energy, studying the human brain to developing selfburrowing robots.
For more information about the Open Competition Domain Science – XS in 2023, please see the pre-announcement of the round 2023 Call for proposals.
Bio-inspired burrowing robot for soil penetration in limited-access sites
Dr. ir. F.A.R. (Floriana Anna Rita) Anselmucci (University of Twente)
Global warming is changing the landscape around us and threatening our safety. Groundwater level fluctuations affect the soil integrity, leading to severe subsidence in the Netherlands, foundation instability and structural damages. Current underground remediation techniques are expensive and ineffective. An innovative selfburrowing robot is proposed to investigate soil and monitor foundations. Bio-inspired by the earthworm movement, the robot burrows in soil with minimum disturbance. Instrumentation allows for continuous foundation examination, soil characterization and local grouting injection. At the same time, the acquired data can be back-engineered as feedback to guide the robot advancement.
