A modular approach to soft robots

Önal, Çağdaş D.; Rus, Daniela

doi:10.1109/biorob.2012.6290290

Cited by 128 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Soft robots are machines fabricated from compliant materials (polymers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , elastomers [1] , hydrogels [9,10] , granules [11] ); they can operate with several different modes of actuation (i.e., pneumatic [1,5,[11][12][13] , electrical [7,[14][15][16][17][18] , chemical [12,19,20] ), and their motion can be either fast (>1 Hz) [9,12,14] or slow (<0.1 Hz) [1,21] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Mosadegh

Polygerinos

Keplinger

et al. 2014

Adv Funct Materials

1,305

827

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Soft robots actuated by pressurization and inflation of a pneumatic network (a "pneunet") of small channels in elastomeric materials are appealing for their ability to produce sophisticated motions with simple controls. Although current designs of pneu-nets achieve motion with large amplitudes, they do so relatively slowly (that is, over seconds). This paper describes a new design for pneu-nets that reduces the amount of gas that must be transported for inflation of the pneu-net, and thus increases its speed of actuation. A simple actuator can bend from a linear shape to a quasi-circular shape in 50 milliseconds when pressurized at ΔP = 345 kPa. At high rates of pressurization and inflation, the path along which the actuator bends depends on this rate. When inflated fully, the channels and chambers of this new pneu-net design experience only one-tenth the change in volume of that required for a motion of equal amplitude using the previous design. This small change in volume requires comparably low levels of strain in the material at maximum amplitudes of actuation, and commensurately low rates of fatigue and failure. This actuator can operate over a million cycles without significant degradation of performance. This design for soft robotic actuators combines high rates of actuation with high reliability of the actuator, and opens new areas of application for them.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Mosadegh

Polygerinos

Keplinger

et al. 2014

Adv Funct Materials

1,305

827

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Control of these robots are also relatively less sophisticated due to their unchanged link dimensions and known kinematics. Recent research efforts in robotics is towards more biologically inspired robotics with robots mimicking continuous body deformation of their natural counterparts such as elephant trunk [1,2], an octopus arm [3][4][5], a snake [6][7][8], a fish [9], a worm and a caterpillar [10][11][12]. Namely, soft robotics, as an emerging research field, focuses on exploiting material properties in order to realize novel robotic systems and devices with more natural kinematic motions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 3D printed monolithic soft gripper with adjustable stiffness

Mutlu

Tawk

Alici

et al. 2017

IECON 2017 - 43rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society

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Soft robotics has recently gained a significant momentum as a newly emerging field in robotics that focuses on biomimicry, compliancy and conformability with safety in near-human environments. Beside conventional fabrication methods, additive manufacturing is a primary technique to employ to fabricate soft robotic devices. We developed a monolithic soft gripper, with variable stiffness fingers, that was fabricated as a onepiece device. Negative pressure was used for the actuation of the gripper while positive pressure was used to vary the stiffness of the fingers of the gripper. Finger bending and gripping capabilities of the monolithic soft gripper were experimentally tested. Finite element simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed monolithic soft gripper is fully compliant, low cost and requires an actuation pressure below -100 kPa. Abstract-Soft robotics has recently gained a significant momentum as a newly emerging field in robotics that focuses on biomimicry, compliancy and conformability with safety in near-human environments. Beside conventional fabrication methods, additive manufacturing is a primary technique to employ to fabricate soft robotic devices. We developed a monolithic soft gripper, with variable stiffness fingers, that was fabricated as a one-piece device. Negative pressure was used for the actuation of the gripper while positive pressure was used to vary the stiffness of the fingers of the gripper. Finger bending and gripping capabilities of the monolithic soft gripper were experimentally tested. Finite element simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed monolithic soft gripper is fully compliant, low cost and requires an actuation pressure below -100 kPa.

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“…There have been a number of studies conducted in this area of robotics: on the motion of a snake [8][9][10], an octopus tentacle [11][12][13], an elephant trunk [14,15] and an inch worm or caterpillar [16][17][18], and similar motion generating species [19][20][21]. While there is a trend moving away from rigid robotic systems towards softer robotic systems, the soft robotic examples in the literature generally rely on external actuation systems such as electric motors with conventional rigid mechanisms as endoskeleton or tendons with a pulley system, or a pump.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1. [25], d. pneumatic soft finger [21], e. snake [10], f. elepthant trunk [28] and caterpillar [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printed Flexure Hinges for Soft Monolithic Prosthetic Fingers

et al. 2016

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Mechanical compliance is one of the primary properties of structures in nature playing a key role in their efficiency. This study investigates a number of commonly used flexure hinges to determine a flexure hinge morphology, which generates large displacements under a lowest possible force input. The aim of this is to design a soft and monolithic robotic finger. Fused deposition modeling, a low-cost 3D printing technique, was used to fabricate the flexure hinges and the soft monolithic robotic fingers. Experimental and finite element analyses suggest that a nonsymmetric elliptical flexure hinge is the most suitable type for use in the soft monolithic robotic finger. Having estimated the effective elastic modulus, flexion of the soft monolithic robotic fingers was simulated and this showed a good correlation with the actual experimental results. The soft monolithic robotic fingers can be employed to handle objects with unknown shapes and are also potential low-cost candidates for establishing soft and one-piece prosthetic hands with light weight. A three-finger gripper has been constructed using the identified flexure hinge to handle objects with irregular shapes such as agricultural products. AbstractMechanical compliance is one of the primary properties of structures in nature playing a key role in their efficiency. This study investigates a number of commonly used flexure hinges in order to determine flexure hinge morphology which generates larger displacements under the lowest force input. The aim of this is to design a soft and monolithic robotic finger. Fused deposition modelling (FDM), a low cost 3D printing technique, was used in order to fabricate the flexure hinges and the soft monolithic robotic fingers. Experimental and finite element analyses suggest that a non-symmetric elliptical flexure hinge is the most suitable type for use in the soft monolithic robotic finger. Having estimated the effective elastic modulus, flexion of the soft monolithic robotic fingers was simulated and this showed a good correlation with the actual experimental results. The soft monolithic robotic fingers can be employed to handle objects with unknown shapes and are also potential low cost candidates for establishing soft and one-piece prosthetic hands with light weight. A 3-finger gripper has been constructed using the identified flexure hinge to handle objects with irregular shapes such as agricultural products.

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A modular approach to soft robots

Cited by 128 publications

References 16 publications

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

A 3D printed monolithic soft gripper with adjustable stiffness

3D Printed Flexure Hinges for Soft Monolithic Prosthetic Fingers

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