FlexiVertebra is a parametric design tool for generating customizable vertebrate-inspired robot morphologies.
The tool allows rapid exploration of body configurations of vertebrates such as Gecko-like, tortise-like, fish-like robotic structures by adjusting a set of intuitive design parameters. It was developed to support research, art and teaching in soft robotics, where exploring morphology design spaces quickly is often challenging or time-consuming using traditional CAD workflows. Instead of manually modeling each robot body plan, FlexiVertebra enables researchers and students to interactively generate robot geometries using a parameter-driven interface. The parametric design interface is available on MakerWorld:
https://makerworld.com/en/models/2387411-flexivertebra-parametric-lizard-builder
This platform allows users to modify parameters directly and generate new robot geometries without installing any software or dependencies.
- Parametric generation of vertebrate-inspired robot morphologies Head
- Articulated spine segments
- Articulated Tail segments
- Flexible joints (living flexures)
- Optional limbs
- Optional tendon routing channels
- Rapid exploration of robot body configurations
- Simple interface suitable for both researchers and students
- Enables reproducible morphology generation
- Direct integration to Bambulab 3D Printers and its materials
- support classroom teaching in soft robotics
README— Link to parametric generator in Makerworld3d-models/— Example morphologies generated using the tool
This tool was developed as part of research on vertebrate-inspired soft robotic systems.
Thanigaivel, N. K., Stalin, T., Kanhere, E., Raj, P. A., Hiramandala, G., & y Alvarado, P. V. (2025, April). Design and Fabrication Workflow for Vertebrate Soft Robots. In 2025 IEEE 8th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) (pp. 1-8). IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11020885
If FlexiVertebra contributes to your research, please cite:
@inproceedings{thanigaivel2025design,
title={Design and Fabrication Workflow for Vertebrate Soft Robots},
author={Thanigaivel, Naresh Kumar and Stalin, Thileepan and Kanhere, Elgar and Raj, PM Aby and Hiramandala, Gumawang and y Alvarado, Pablo Valdivia},
booktitle={2025 IEEE 8th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)},
pages={1--8},
year={2025},
organization={IEEE}
}Tool
@software{Naresh_FlexiVertebra,
title={FlexiVertebra: Parametric Morphology Generator for Vertebrate Soft Robots},
author={Naresh Kumar Thanigaivel},
year={2026},
url={https://github.com/robots-guy/FlexiVertebra}
}Naresh Kumar Thanigaivel
Bio-Inspired Robotics & Design Lab (BRD Lab) (https://brd.sutd.edu.sg/)
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
This repository is released under the MIT License.