  Non-conservative loads of the follower type are usually believed to be the
source of dynamic instabilities such as flutter and divergence. It is shown
that these instabilities (including Hopf bifurcation, flutter, divergence, and
destabilizing effects connected to dissipation phenomena) can be obtained in
structural systems loaded by conservative forces, as a consequence of the
application of non-holonomic constraints. These constraints may be realized
through a `perfect skate' (or a non-sliding wheel), or, more in general,
through the slipless contact between two circular rigid cylinders, one of which
is free of rotating about its axis. The motion of the structure produced by
these dynamic instabilities may reach a limit cycle, a feature that can be
exploited for soft robotics applications, especially for the realization of
limbless locomotion.
