A soft and dexterous motor (original) (raw)
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Soft Robotics: New Perspectives for Robot Bodyware and Control
Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology, 2014
The remarkable advances of robotics in the last 50 years, which represent an incredible wealth of knowledge, are based on the fundamental assumption that robots are chains of rigid links. The use of soft materials in robotics, driven not only by new scientific paradigms (biomimetics, morphological computation, and others), but also by many applications (biomedical, service, rescue robots, and many more), is going to overcome these basic assumptions and makes the well-known theories and techniques poorly applicable, opening new perspectives for robot design and control. The current examples of soft robots represent a variety of solutions for actuation and control. Though very first steps, they have the potential for a radical technological change. Soft robotics is not just a new direction of technological development, but a novel approach to robotics, unhinging its fundamentals, with the potential to produce a new generation of robots, in the support of humans in our natural environm...
Novel Design and Position Control Strategy of a Soft Robot Arm
Robotics
This article presents a novel design of a continuum arm, which has the ability to extend and bend efficiently. Numerous designs and experiments have been done to different dimensions on both types of McKibben pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA) in order to study their performances. The contraction and extension behaviour have been illustrated with single contractor actuators and single extensor actuators, respectively. The tensile force for the contractor actuator and the compressive force for the extensor PMA are thoroughly explained and compared. Furthermore, the bending behaviour has been explained for a single extensor PMA, multi extensor actuators and multi contractor actuators. A two-section continuum arm has been implemented from both types of actuators to achieve multiple operations. Then, a novel construction is proposed to achieve efficient bending behaviour of a single contraction PMA. This novel design of a bending-actuator has been used to modify the presented continuum ar...
Design, Kinematics and Controlling a Novel Soft Robot Arm with Parallel Motion
Robotics, 2018
This article presents a novel design for a double bend pneumatic muscle actuator (DB-PMA) inspired by snake lateral undulation. The presented actuator has the ability to bend in opposite directions from its two halves. This behavior results in horizontal and vertical movements of the actuator distal ends. The kinematics for the proposed actuator are illustrated and experiments conducted to validate its unique features. Furthermore, a continuum robot arm with the ability to move in parallel (horizontal displacement) is designed with a single DB-PMA and a two-finger soft gripper. The performance of the soft robot arm presented is explained, then another design of the horizontal motion continuum robot arm is proposed, using two self-bending contraction actuators (SBCA) in series to overcome the payload effects on the upper half of the soft arm.
Multi-functional dielectric elastomer artificial muscles for soft and smart machines
Journal of Applied Physics, 2012
Dielectric elastomer (DE) actuators are popularly referred to as artificial muscles because their impressive actuation strain and speed, low density, compliant nature, and silent operation capture many of the desirable physical properties of muscle. Unlike conventional robots and machines, whose mechanisms and drive systems rapidly become very complex as the number of degrees of freedom increases, groups of DE artificial muscles have the potential to generate rich motions combining many translational and rotational degrees of freedom. These artificial muscle systems can mimic the agonist-antagonist approach found in nature, so that active expansion of one artificial muscle is taken up by passive contraction in the other. They can also vary their stiffness. In addition, they have the ability to produce electricity from movement. But departing from the high stiffness paradigm of electromagnetic motors and gearboxes leads to new control challenges, and for soft machines to be truly dexterous like their biological analogues, they need precise control. Humans control their limbs using sensory feedback from strain sensitive cells embedded in muscle. In DE actuators, deformation is inextricably linked to changes in electrical parameters that include capacitance and resistance, so the state of strain can be inferred by sensing these changes, enabling the closed loop control that is critical for a soft machine. But the increased information processing required for a soft machine can impose a substantial burden on a central controller. The natural solution is to distribute control within the mechanism itself. The octopus arm is an example of a soft actuator with a virtually infinite number of degrees of freedom (DOF). The arm utilizes neural ganglia to process sensory data at the local "arm" level and perform complex tasks. Recent advances in soft electronics such as the piezoresistive dielectric elastomer switch (DES) have the potential to be fully integrated with actuators and sensors. With the DE switch, we can produce logic gates, oscillators, and a memory element, the building blocks for a soft computer, thus bringing us closer to emulating smart living structures like the octopus arm. The goal of future research is to develop fully soft machines that exploit smart actuation networks to gain capabilities formerly reserved to nature, and open new vistas in mechanical engineering. V
The Quest for Natural Machine Motion: An Open Platform to Fast-Prototyping Articulated Soft Robots
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 2017
oft robots are one of the most significant recent evolutions in robotics. They rely on compliant physical structures purposefully designed to embody desired characteristics. Since their introduction, they have shown remarkable applicability in overcoming their rigid counterparts in such areas as interaction with humans, adaptability, energy efficiency, and maximization of peak performance. Nonetheless, we believe that research on novel soft robot applications is still slowed by the difficulty in obtaining or developing a working soft robot structure to explore novel applications. In this article, we present the Natural Machine Motion Initiative (NMMI), a modular open platform that aims to provide the scientific community with tools for fast and easy prototyping of articulated soft robots. Such a platform is composed of three main open hardware modules: the Qbmoves variable-stiffness actuators (VSAs) to build the main robotic structure, soft end effectors (EEs) to interact with the world, and a pool of application-specific add-ons. We also discuss many novel uses of the platform to rapidly prototype (RP) and test new robotic structures with original soft capabilities, and we propose NMMIbased experiments. Many New Robotics Possibilities Enabling a true integration of robots in human-populated environments is one of the most ambitious long-term goals of robotics research. Robot evolution in terms of safety, intelligence, affordability, and social skills has been impressive in the past decade and has brought several robotic devices to market. However, making robots able to safely interact with the public is hindered by the fact that classical industrial robots, as stiff and heavy machines, can generate dangerous and unstable interactions in uncertain environments. To overcome this limitation, and inspired by biological actuation, so-called soft robotics was born [1], i.e., robot development that embeds elastic elements with either fixed or variable mechanical compliance. The first goal for soft robots ©istockphoto.com/brendan hunter
A Novel Soft Actuator for the Musculoskeletal System
Advanced Materials Technologies, 2018
The musculoskeletal system (MS) is essential for the movements of biological systems. Inspired by this natural structure, several attempts are made to create a synthetic MS. However, one of the challenges in developing an artificial MS for biomimetic robots is the lack of a high‐performance, low‐cost, light‐weight, and compact artificial muscle. In this Communication, a novel twisted and coiled artificial muscle is demonstrated, which is a promising actuator for the development of the artificial MS. The new muscle is made by twisting a nylon 6 fishing line precursor fiber and wrapping with a very thin (80 µm diameter) resistance wire. The resistance wire is not twisted during twist insertion of the polymer, which is very important for the performance of the muscle. The new muscle termed is integrated in a 3D printed ball‐and‐socket‐based artificial MS. Characterization results show a remarkable tensile actuation (53% strain provided at 1.69 MPa for an input current of 0.22 A). Furth...
Elastic Energy Storage Enables Rapid and Programmable Actuation in Soft Machines
Advanced Functional Materials, 2019
Storage of elastic energy is key to increasing the efficiency, speed, and power output of many biological systems. This paper describes a simple design strategy for the rapid fabrication of prestressed soft actuators (PSAs), exploiting elastic energy storage to enhance the capabilities of soft robots. The elastic energy that PSAs store in their prestressed elastomeric layer enables the fabrication of grippers capable of zero-power holding up to 100 times their weight and perching upside down from angles of up to 116°. The direction and magnitude of the force used to prestress the elastomeric layer can be controlled not only to define the final shape of the PSA but also to program its actuation sequence. Additionally, the release of the elastic energy stored by PSAs causes their high-speed recovery (≈50 ms), which significantly improves the actuation rates of soft pneumatic actuators, especially after motions requiring large deformations. Moreover, judicious prestressing of PSAs can also create bistable soft robotic systems, which use their stored elastic energy as a source of power amplification for rapid movements. These strategies serve as a basis for a new class of entirely soft robots capable of recreating bioinspired high-powered and high-speed motions using stored elastic energy.
ArXiv, 2019
Traditional robots have rigid links and structures that limit their ability to interact with the dynamics of their immediate environment. For example, conventional robot manipulators with rigid links can only manipulate objects using specific end effectors. These robots often encounter difficulties operating in unstructured and highly congested environments. A variety of biological organisms exhibit complex movement with soft structures devoid of rigid components. Inspired by biology, researchers have been able to design and build soft robots. With a soft structure and redundant degrees of freedom, these robots can be used for delicate tasks in unstructured environments. This review discusses the motivation for soft robots, their design processes as well as their applications and limitations. Soft robots have the ability to operate in unstructured environment due to their inherent potential to exploit morphological computation to adapt to, and interact with, the world in a way that ...
Untethered Soft Robots with Bioinspired Bone-and-Flesh Constructs for Fast Deterministic Actuation
2019 20th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems & Eurosensors XXXIII (TRANSDUCERS & EUROSENSORS XXXIII)
We present a new class of soft robots inspired by the bone-and-flesh construct in human body for fast, deterministic actuation. Two distinctive advancements have been achieved: (1) untethered robots with external magnetic power, boasting high normalized power density of ~2*10-2 /s (40-6,000,000× higher than most reports); (2) ultrafast and deterministic-shape actuation in ~0.1 seconds (100x faster than the state-of-the-art). Inspired by the natural human architecture, our soft robots with different elastomer ("flesh") structures and magnet ("bone") placements can complete various tasks quickly and precisely (e.g., planar contraction, out-of-plane gesture transitions, breaking lock-in states, and manipulating small objects). We envision that our design and operation principles can be potentially extended to even more complex applications.
A Survey on Actuators, Sensors and Control Mechanism Used in Soft Robotics
A proposed adaptive soft orthotic device performs motion sensing and production of assistive forces with a modular, pneumatically-driven, hyper-elastic composite. Wrapping the material around a joint will allow simultaneous motion sensing and active force response through shape and rigidity control. This monolithic elastomer sheet contains a series of miniaturized pneumatically-powered McKibben-type actuators that exert tension and enable adaptive rigidity control. The elastomer is embedded with conductive liquid channels that detect strain and bending deformations induced by the pneumatic actuators. In addition, the proposed system is modular and can be configured for a diverse range of motor tasks, joints, and human subjects. This modular functionality is accomplished with a decentralized network of self-configuring nodes that manage the collection of sensory data and the delivery of actuator feedback commands. This paper mainly describes the design of the soft orthotic device as well as actuator and sensor components. The characterization of the individual sensors, actuators, and the integrated device is also presented.