A Recipe for Soft Fluidic Elastomer Robots

Abstract

This work provides approaches to designing and fabricating soft fluidic elastomer robots. That is, three viable actuator morphologies composed entirely from soft silicone rubber are explored, and these morphologies are differentiated by their internal channel structure, namely, ribbed, cylindrical, and pleated. Additionally, three distinct casting-based fabrication processes are explored: lamination-based casting, retractable-pin-based casting, and lost-wax-based casting. Furthermore, two ways of fabricating a multiple DOF robot are explored: casting the complete robot as a whole and casting single degree of freedom (DOF) segments with subsequent concatenation. We experimentally validate each soft actuator morphology and fabrication process by creating multiple physical soft robot prototypes.

Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

“…These techniques can be combined to create composites with heterogenous materials (e.g. rubber with different stiffness moduli), embedded electronics, and internal channels for actuation 31,70 . Direct digital printing with soft materials may be another option for fabricating arbitrary soft structures.…”

Untethered soft robotics

“…Many other untethered soft robots take advantage of marine environments to circumvent static friction and offload the mass of their auxiliary components 57,62,119,120 , thereby improving the system efficiency 121 . These principles allowed the autonomous soft robotic fish developed by Marchese et al to benefit from its large size and incorporate hydraulic actuators and power within its body cavity 119,120 (Fig.…”

“…These principles allowed the autonomous soft robotic fish developed by Marchese et al to benefit from its large size and incorporate hydraulic actuators and power within its body cavity 119,120 (Fig. 6c).…”

Biomimetic Spider Leg Joints: A Review from Biomechanical Research to Compliant Robotic Actuators

“…Furthermore, the bio-inspired robots with inherent compliance can be distinguished into two main types [44]. "True" soft robotics, which means the robot consists solely from deformable material [46][47][48][49], and hard robot structures, which are soft actuated or have soft capabilities [50,51]. Biological spider leg joints are clearly defined by a pivot joint and a stiff exoskeletal structure, which is actuated by compliant muscles and a flexible membrane.…”

“…Thus, this review focuses on the sub-field of fluidically actuated robotic devices, see Today, fluidic, biomimetic, and compliant robotic actuators can be found in various areas of application: From micro-actuation systems for surgical tools and new industrial purposes [65] to medical and rehabilitation devices [2,3,69], or handling devices [66] and mobile robots [47,70].…”