Hydraulic Eversion in Confined Cellular Water Structures: Mechanics of an Infrastructure-Building Maintenance Agent

We present the first mechanics framework for hydraulic eversion in a water-filled confined environment, in which a vine-robot descendant grows by pressure-driven eversion while simultaneously emplacing permanent structural and sensing infrastructure. The Adaptive Matrix Worm (AMW) operates inside the water-filled cellular passages of an Adaptive Matrix Ecosystem (AME) structure, navigating by eversion of a stored Natural Rubber Latex (NRL) tube driven by a small, depth-independent gauge pressure differential (ΔP = 2–10 kPa). A quasi-static force budget F_drive = F_fold + F_wall + F_pay + F_fiber + F_steer + F_pen governs growth; fold friction dominates at 70–85% of total resistance across four distinct…