A soft robot that navigates its environment through growth

Hawkes, Elliot W.; Blumenschein, Laura H.; Greer, Joseph D.; Okamura, Allison M.

doi:10.1126/scirobotics.aan3028

Cited by 732 publications

(487 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…[44][45][46][47] Aiming to create an untethered, electrically powered soft robot based on HASEL actuators for grasping and manipulation, we combined several capabilities described in the previous sections, Figure 8. [44][45][46][47] Aiming to create an untethered, electrically powered soft robot based on HASEL actuators for grasping and manipulation, we combined several capabilities described in the previous sections, Figure 8.…”

Section: Toward An Untethered Soft Robot For Grasping and Manipulatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

An Easy‐to‐Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High‐Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots

et al. 2019

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For soft robots to have ubiquitous adoption in practical applications they require soft actuators that provide well‐rounded actuation performance that parallels natural muscle while being inexpensive and easily fabricated. This manuscript introduces a toolkit to rapidly prototype, manufacture, test, and power various designs of hydraulically amplified self‐healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators with muscle‐like performance that achieve all three basic modes of actuation (expansion, contraction, and rotation). This toolkit utilizes easy‐to‐implement methods, inexpensive fabrication tools, commodity materials, and off‐the‐shelf high‐voltage electronics thereby enabling a wide audience to explore HASEL technology. Remarkably, the actuators created from this easy‐to‐implement toolkit achieve linear strains exceeding 100%, a specific power greater than 150 W kg −1 , and ≈20% strain at frequencies above 100 Hz. This combination of large strain, extreme speed, and high specific power yields soft actuators that jump without power‐amplifying mechanisms. Additionally, an efficient fabrication technique is introduced for modular designs of HASEL actuators, which is used to develop soft robotic devices driven by portable electronics. Inspired by the versatility of elephant trunks, the above capabilities are combined to create an untethered continuum robot for grasping and manipulating delicate objects, highlighting the wide potential of the introduced methods for soft robots with increasing sophistication.

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Section: Toward An Untethered Soft Robot For Grasping and Manipulatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

An Easy‐to‐Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High‐Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots

et al. 2019

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“…The proposed design is able to tolerate much higher longitudinal strains than the examples in the literature (Hawkes et al, 2016), and is maneuvered with less pressure than the stiffer designs (Sun et al, 2016). Please note that growth-based soft robots, such as the very-recent example called vine robots (Hawkes et al, 2017), can lengthen by thousands of percent from the tip, too. Although the actuation principles are different, these robots serve to the same purpose.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To the best of our knowledge, none of the state-of-the-art designs could tolerate such high strains when this work was completed (Yarbasi, 2016). However, a new kind of robots, so-called vine robots, has been recently proposed which can lengthen by thousands of percent by growth (Hawkes et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and evaluation of a continuum robot with extendable balloons

Yarbasi

Samur

2018

Mech. Sci.

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Abstract. This article presents the design and preliminary evaluation of a novel continuum robot actuated by two extendable balloons. Extendable balloons are utilized as the actuation mechanism of the robot, and they are attached to the tip from their slack sections. These balloons can extend very much in length without having a significant change in diameter. Employing two balloons in an axially extendable, radially rigid flexible shaft, radial strain becomes constricted, allowing high elongation. As inflated, the balloons apply a force on the wall of the tip, pushing it forward. This force enables the robot to move forward. The air is supplied to the balloons by an air compressor and its flow rate to each balloon can be independently controlled. Changing the air volumes differently in each balloon, when they are radially constricted, orients the robot, allowing navigation. Elongation and force generation capabilities and pressure data are measured for different balloons during inflation and deflation. Afterward, the robot is subjected to open field and maze-like environment navigation tests. The contribution of this study is the introduction of a novel actuation mechanism for soft robots to have extreme elongation (2000 %) in order to be navigated in substantially long and narrow environments.

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“…Multiple actuation mechanisms have been developed for soft locomotive robots. For example, pneumatics can easily elongate, contract, bend, and twist driven by changes in fluid pressure . A semisoft pneumatic actuator built by slit tubes can be turned into a grasper or a walker .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Shepherd et al designed a pneumatically actuated multigait soft robot that could perform sophisticated locomotion, which was then improved by Tolley et al, who untethered this robot by implementing a miniature air compressor . Hawkes et al invented a soft pneumatic robot that navigates its environment through shape transformation . With pneumatic being the most popular mechanism for soft robots, other materials such as shape memory alloy (SMA) and electroactive polymers have also been widely used for actuation using temperature and electric field, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunable, Flexible, and Resilient Robots Driven by an Electrostatic Actuator

Jin

Zhang

Xü

et al. 2020

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Robustness, deformability, maneuverability, and ease of fabrication are among the most desirable features of soft robots that can adapt to various working environments and complex terrains. Herein, polymeric thin‐film‐based flexible robots are designed, prototyped, and examined that use mechanical instability and electrostatic force actuation for locomotion. An electrostatic actuator is first developed using a buckled beam that can deform by up to 68% of its height under an applied voltage. A centimeter‐scale robotic bug is then designed that shows superb flexibility, adaptability, and maneuverability by incorporating origami structural elements. For instance, the robotic bug can be completely smashed and still recover its mobility, walk on various terrains, slopes (up to 30°) and narrow spaces, overcome hurdles, make turns, and even move backward with a crawling (linear) and turning (rotation) speed up to 40 mm s−1 and ≈45° s−1, respectively. Such remarkable characteristics are controlled by a set of parameters such as the amplitude and frequency of the input voltage and/or the origami geometries. The facile and tunable design and the actuation principle can potentially enable ample opportunities for the development of the next‐generation soft robotics.

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A soft robot that navigates its environment through growth

Cited by 732 publications

References 39 publications

An Easy‐to‐Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High‐Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots

An Easy‐to‐Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High‐Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots

Design and evaluation of a continuum robot with extendable balloons

Tunable, Flexible, and Resilient Robots Driven by an Electrostatic Actuator

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