A review of soft wearable robots that provide active assistance: Trends, common actuation methods, fabrication, and applications

Thalman, Carly M.; Artemiadis, Panagiotis

doi:10.1017/wtc.2020.4

Cited by 111 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 164 publications

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“…In recent years, soft robotics gained popularity among researchers due to merits in compliance and safe human-robot interaction. In particular, in the development of wearable rehabilitation robots, soft robotics have provided new solutions ( Peng and Huang, 2019 ; Thalman and Artemiadis, 2020 ). Unlike the conventional devices that use electric motors and rigid linkages to constrain and guide the motions of the human joints, the soft wearables utilize soft actuators associated with flexible materials to repetitively move the joints, thus obtaining the effectiveness of rehabilitation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Compact Soft Robotic Wrist Brace With Origami Actuators

et al. 2021

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Wrist disability caused by a series of diseases or injuries hinders the patient’s capability to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Rehabilitation devices for the wrist motor function have gained popularity among clinics and researchers due to the convenience of self-rehabilitation. The inherent compliance of soft robots enabled safe human-robot interaction and light-weight characteristics, providing new possibilities to develop wearable devices. Compared with the conventional apparatus, soft robotic wearable rehabilitation devices showed advantages in flexibility, cost, and comfort. In this work, a compact and low-profile soft robotic wrist brace was proposed by directly integrating eight soft origami-patterned actuators on the commercially available wrist brace. The linear motion of the actuators was defined by their origami pattern. The extensions of the actuators were constrained by the brace fabrics, deriving the motions of the wrist joint, i.e., extension/flexion, ulnar/radial deviation. The soft actuators were made of ethylene-vinyl acetate by blow molding, achieving mass-production capability, low cost, and high repeatability. The design and fabrication of the soft robotic wrist brace are presented in this work. The experiments on the range of motion, output force, wearing position adaptivity, and performance under disturbance have been carried out with results analyzed. The modular soft actuator approach of design and fabrication of the soft robotic wrist brace has a wide application potential in wearable devices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Compact Soft Robotic Wrist Brace With Origami Actuators

et al. 2021

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“…Besides of the application as animated objects, we would like to explore more applications in robotics and medical usages as the other soft actuators [11]. The simple fabrication approach of xBalloon can also be used as wearable devices0 with soft actuators that assist user abilities for human augmentation purpose [16].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

xBalloon: Animated Objects with Balloon Plastic Actuator

Xie

Torii

Chiba

et al. 2021

12th Augmented Human International Conference

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Shape-changing interfaces are promising for users to change the physical properties of common objects. However, prevailing approaches of actuation devices require either professional equipment or materials that are not commonly accessible to non-professional users. In this work, we focus on the controllable soft actuators with inflatable structures because they are soft thus safe for human computer interaction. We propose a soft actuator design, called xBalloon, that is workable, inexpensive and easy-to-fabricate. It consists of daily materials including balloons and plastics and can realize bending actuation very effectively. For characterization, we fabricated xBalloon samples with different geometrical parameters and tested them regarding the bending performance and found the analytical model describing the relationship between the shape and the bending width. We then used xBalloons to animate a series of common objects and all can work satisfactorily. We further verified the user experience about the the fabrication and found that even those with no prior robotic knowledge can fabricate xBalloons with ease and confidence. Given all these advantages, we believe that xBalloon is an ideal platform for interaction design and entertainment applications.

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“…Soft materials are becoming popular in the area of assistive robotics with different system developed in recent years to assist upper and lower limbs (Figure 3) [40,41]. Assistive robots with soft materials tend to be lighter and more comfortable compared to robots built with rigid structures.…”

Section: Soft Materials In Wearable Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wearable Assistive Robotics: A Perspective on Current Challenges and Future Trends

Martinez-Hernandez

Metcalfe

Assaf

et al. 2021

Sensors

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Wearable assistive robotics is an emerging technology with the potential to assist humans with sensorimotor impairments to perform daily activities. This assistance enables individuals to be physically and socially active, perform activities independently, and recover quality of life. These benefits to society have motivated the study of several robotic approaches, developing systems ranging from rigid to soft robots with single and multimodal sensing, heuristics and machine learning methods, and from manual to autonomous control for assistance of the upper and lower limbs. This type of wearable robotic technology, being in direct contact and interaction with the body, needs to comply with a variety of requirements to make the system and assistance efficient, safe and usable on a daily basis by the individual. This paper presents a brief review of the progress achieved in recent years, the current challenges and trends for the design and deployment of wearable assistive robotics including the clinical and user need, material and sensing technology, machine learning methods for perception and control, adaptability and acceptability, datasets and standards, and translation from lab to the real world.

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A review of soft wearable robots that provide active assistance: Trends, common actuation methods, fabrication, and applications

Cited by 111 publications

References 164 publications

A Compact Soft Robotic Wrist Brace With Origami Actuators

A Compact Soft Robotic Wrist Brace With Origami Actuators

xBalloon: Animated Objects with Balloon Plastic Actuator

Wearable Assistive Robotics: A Perspective on Current Challenges and Future Trends

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