Maneuvering on non-Newtonian fluidic terrain: a survey of animal and bio-inspired robot locomotion techniques on soft yielding grounds.

Frictionally yielding media are a particular type of non-Newtonian fluids that significantly deform under stress and do not recover their original shape. For example, mud, snow, soil, leaf litters, or sand are such substrates because they flow when stress is applied but do not bounce back when released. Some robots have been designed to move on those substrates.