  Many organisms, including various species of spiders and caterpillars, change
their shape to switch gaits and adapt to different environments. Recent
technological advances, ranging from stretchable circuits to highly deformable
soft robots, have begun to make shape-changing robots a possibility. However,
it is currently unclear how and when shape change should occur, and what
capabilities could be gained, leading to a wide range of unsolved design and
control problems. To begin addressing these questions, here we simulate,
design, and build a soft robot that utilizes shape change to achieve locomotion
over both a flat and inclined surface. Modeling this robot in simulation, we
explore its capabilities in two environments and demonstrate the existence of
environment-specific shapes and gaits that successfully transfer to the
physical hardware. We found that the shape-changing robot traverses these
environments better than an equivalent but non-morphing robot, in simulation
and reality.
