A Proprioceptive Soft Tentacle Gripper Based on Crosswise Stretchable Sensors

Xie, Zhexin; Yuan, Feiyang; Liu, Zemin; Sun, Zhaoqing; Knubben, Elias; Wen, Li

doi:10.1109/tmech.2020.2993258

Cited by 52 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The unique coexistence of flexibility and rigidity of origami structure can be better applied to problems that are difficult to be solved by traditional soft gripper with constant length, [23] such as 1) dynamically changed environments, 2) confined space, and 3) tasks involving interaction with humans or fragile objects. [6] However, previous efforts were focused on elongating origami actuators and bending origami actuators; [24,25] little research has been done on coupled stretching and bending motion with programmable effective length.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Origami Gripper with Variable Effective Length

Chen

Shao

Xie

et al. 2021

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Nature has evolved to shape morphing to adapt to complex environments while engaging with the surroundings. Inspired by this capability, robots are expected to be endowed with the ability to perform shape‐changing, thus interacting with complex environments. Herein, a soft origami actuator with variable effective length (VEL) is proposed to adapt to different objects. The actuator's VEL is realized by an origami structure and actuated by hybrid actuation of tendons and pneumatic pressure. The soft actuator yields motion combining both elongation and bending generated by the asymmetric Yorshimura origami structure. Then an adaptive gripper composed of four origami actuators with programmable effective length is fabricated and its effect on grasping performance is evaluated through both simulations and experiments. Results show that the gripper can grip objects of different shapes, weights, sizes, and textures. This research may shed light on a new soft gripper design using origami structure for the environment's self‐adaptability.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Origami Gripper with Variable Effective Length

Chen

Shao

Xie

et al. 2021

Advanced Intelligent Systems

Self Cite

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Section: Sensing Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…proposed an interesting sensor design method for a soft tentacle robot, namely, a crosswise sensor system. [ 182 ] In their design, the soft sensor was composed of two layers: an elongation sensor and an expansion sensor that were laid in a crosswise manner, as shown in Figure 12e. This design provided a way to acquire sensory feedbacks of the elongation and expansion induced by the pneumatic inflation of a soft actuator.…”

Section: Sensing Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Robotic Manipulators: Designs, Actuation, Stiffness Tuning, and Sensing

Dou

Zhong

Cao

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

106

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Soft robotic manipulators are continuum robots made of soft materials and flexible components. The goal of soft robotic manipulators research is to enable these manipulators to adapt their shapes to cluttered environments and to have safer interactions with human. However, there is still a problem with effectively using soft robotic manipulators in practical applications. The challenges of soft robotic manipulators in terms of materials and structure design, stiffness control, perception, and function control remain to be overcome. Here, an overview of recent advances in this field is presented, covering device architectures, actuation, variable stiffness, and sensing. Actuator technologies are discussed and roughly divided into three categories: a) tendon‐driven actuation, b) fluidic actuation, and c) stimuli‐responsive actuation, which is based on smart materials. Considering the working principle of stiffness variation technologies, stiffness variation technologies can be divided into two categories: a) using the interactions between structural elements, b) direct material rigidity tuning strategies. A briefly review of soft sensing technologies is presented. From the functional perspective, sensor technologies are divide into two categories: proprioception and exteroception. A conception for designing soft robotic manipulators is proposed from the perspective of soft robotic manipulator applications. Finally, the challenges this field faces are discussed.

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“…[ 33 ] However, the piezoresistive contact sensors cannot provide accurate absolute force information [ 34,35 ] because it would respond to both actuator bending and contact pressure. There are still many other investigations which have proposed integration of single or multiple flexible sensors on soft actuators, such as tactile sensor arrays on a soft prosthetic hand [ 36 ] and strain sensors on a soft tentacle gripper [ 37 ] and so on, but nevertheless they all lack a clear pathway to decouple deformations from grasping forces. Although many bending‐insensitive pressure sensors have been developed, [ 38–41 ] the mounting of these sensors on soft actuators could result in a local flexural deformation of the sensor and actuator material together when receiving contact pressure, resulting in ambiguous sensor response.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Multifunctional Mechanoreception of Soft–Rigid Hybrid Actuator Fingers

Gong

Ding

et al. 2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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It is highly desired yet challenging to construct soft robots resembling the dexterous motor skills and powerful tactile sensations of human hands. Herein, a bioinspired design to create soft–rigid hybrid mechanoreceptive actuators (HMAs) and grippers is reported, imitating the musculoskeletal structure and embedded mechanoreception of human fingers, via careful ink preparation and a multimodality all‐3D‐printing technology. The HMAs consist of multiple rigid segments between joints, imitating phalanges, to mount flexible mechanoreceptive sensors in a flexible‐on‐rigid (FOR) design, yielding a bending‐insensitive unambiguous mechanoreception. The printed sensors exhibit a humanoid high sensitivity for low contact force and a wide low‐sensitivity linear detection range, combined with excellent long‐term stability and low hysteresis. As a result, the HMA gripper not only shows greatly enhanced output force due to the soft–rigid hybrid design, but also enables multifunctional mechanoreceptive sensing including contact identification, gentle grabbing, and the estimation of size, weight, and stiffness of the grasped objects. This integrated approach of constructing soft robots with mechanoreception can provide a pathway toward feedback control, integrative biomimetic functions, and human–machine interface for all soft devices.

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A Proprioceptive Soft Tentacle Gripper Based on Crosswise Stretchable Sensors

Cited by 52 publications

References 35 publications

Soft Origami Gripper with Variable Effective Length

Soft Origami Gripper with Variable Effective Length

Soft Robotic Manipulators: Designs, Actuation, Stiffness Tuning, and Sensing

Bioinspired Multifunctional Mechanoreception of Soft–Rigid Hybrid Actuator Fingers

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