Biological Inspiration for Musclelike Actuators of Robots

Meijer, K.; Bar‐Cohen, Yoseph

doi:10.1117/3.2068093.ch2

Cited by 10 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Animal muscle is particularly well suited to soft actuation. Meijer et al (2003) summarised the range of performance metrics of muscle including the maximum force production at constant length, length dependence of force production, the rate at which force can be generated and velocity dependence of force production. Muscles, while all being contractile, have wide variability in characteristics among different species and even among different muscles in the same animal (Hunter and Lafontaine 1992).…”

Section: Hydrostatic Skeletons and Muscularmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…EAPs can be broadly classified into electronic EAPs (dielectric elastomers, electrostrictive graft elastomers, electrostrictive paper, electroviscoelastic polymers ferroelectric polymers and liquid crystal elastomers) and ionic EAPs (carbon nanotubes, conductive polymers, electrorheological fluids, ionic polymer gels and ionic polymer metallic composites) (Meijer et al 2003). In general, ionic EAPs operate at low voltage but require constant hydration and produce low stress, limiting their applications.…”

Section: Soft Eap Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, ionic EAPs operate at low voltage but require constant hydration and produce low stress, limiting their applications. On the other hand, electronic EAPs produce relatively large strains, respond quickly and are relatively efficient, but often require high actuation voltages (Meijer et al 2003). Pelrine et al (2002) concluded that dielectric elastomers (Kornbluh et al 1998;Zang et al 2005) are closest to animal muscles based on criteria of strain, actuation pressure, density, efficiency and speed.…”

Section: Soft Eap Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soft Robotics: Biological Inspiration, State of the Art, and Future Research

Trivedi

Rahn

Kier

et al. 2008

Applied Bionics and Biomechanics

1,192

536

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Traditional robots have rigid underlying structures that limit their ability to interact with their environment. For example, conventional robot manipulators have rigid links and can manipulate objects using only their specialised end effectors. These robots often encounter difficulties operating in unstructured and highly congested environments. A variety of animals and plants exhibit complex movement with soft structures devoid of rigid components. Muscular hydrostats (e.g. octopus arms and elephant trunks) are almost entirely composed of muscle and connective tissue and plant cells can change shape when pressurised by osmosis. Researchers have been inspired by biology to design and build soft robots. With a soft structure and redundant degrees of freedom, these robots can be used for delicate tasks in cluttered and/or unstructured environments. This paper discusses the novel capabilities of soft robots, describes examples from nature that provide biological inspiration, surveys the state of the art and outlines existing challenges in soft robot design, modelling, fabrication and control.

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Section: Hydrostatic Skeletons and Muscularmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soft Eap Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soft Eap Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soft Robotics: Biological Inspiration, State of the Art, and Future Research

Trivedi

Rahn

Kier

et al. 2008

Applied Bionics and Biomechanics

1,192

536

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite many research efforts, there are no actuators which can fully replicate the performance of natural muscles. [11,35,39,42,45]. Specific power is the power per unit of weight, is the maximum force applied by the actuator per unit area (i.e.…”

Section: What Are the Elements Of A Typical Conventional Robotic Systmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A typical soft robotic system should be designed to have an integrated topology with the same elements as the conventional hard robotic systems, except all of these features should be built into a monolithic body like live bodies such as animals and plants. Depending on the application, the actuation principle can be inspired from human beings, animals, and their mammalian skeleton muscles or from plants [8,34,36,38,42].…”

Section: What Are the Elements Of A Typical Conventional Robotic Systmentioning

confidence: 99%

Softer is Harder: What Differentiates Soft Robotics from Hard Robotics?

Alici

2018

MRS Advances

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This paper reports on what differentiates the field of soft (i.e. soft-bodied) robotics from the conventional hard (i.e. rigid-bodied) robotics. The main difference centres on seamlessly combining the actuation, sensing, motion transmission and conversion mechanism elements, electronics and power source into a continuum body that ideally holds the properties of morphological computation and programmable compliance (i.e. softness). Another difference is about the materials they are made of. While the hard robots are made of rigid materials such as metals and hard plastics with a bulk elastic modulus of as low as 1 GPa, the monolithic soft robots should be fabricated from soft and hard materials or from a strategic combination of them with a maximum elasticity modulus of 1 GPa. Soft smart materials with programmable mechanical, electrical and rheological properties, and conformable to additive manufacturing based on 3D printing are essential to realise soft robots. Selecting the actuation concept and its power source, which is the first and most important step in establishing a robot, determines the size, weight, performance of the soft robot, the type of sensors and their location, control algorithm, power requirement and its associated flexible and stretchable electronics. This paper outlines how crucial the soft materials are in realising the actuation concept, which can be inspired from animal and plant movements. Disciplines Engineering | Science and Technology Studies ABSTRACTThis paper reports on what differentiates the field of soft (i.e. soft-bodied) robotics from the conventional hard (i.e. rigid-bodied) robotics. The main difference centres on seamlessly combining the actuation, sensing, motion transmission and conversion mechanism elements, electronics and power source into a continuum body that ideally holds the properties of morphological computation and programmable compliance (i.e. softness). Another difference is about the materials they are made of. While the hard robots are made of rigid materials such as metals and hard plastics with a bulk elastic modulus of as low as 1 GPa, the monolithic soft robots should be fabricated from soft and hard materials or from a strategic combination of them with a maximum elasticity modulus of 1 GPa. Soft smart materials with programmable mechanical, electrical and rheological properties, and conformable to additive manufacturing based on 3D printing are essential to realise soft robots. Selecting the actuation concept and its power source, which is the first and most important step in establishing a robot, determines the size, weight, performance of the soft robot, the type of sensors and their location, control algorithm, power requirement and its associated flexible and stretchable electronics. This paper outlines how crucial the soft materials are in realising the actuation concept, which can be inspired from animal and plant movements.

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Variable gearing in a biologically inspired pneumatic actuator array

Azizi

Roberts

2013

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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A fundamental feature of pennate muscles is that muscle fibers are oriented at an angle to the line of action and rotate as they shorten, becoming more oblique throughout a contraction. This change in fiber orientation (pennation angle) can amplify the shortening velocity of a fiber and increase output velocity of the muscle. The velocity advantage resulting from dynamic changes in pennation angle can be characterized as a gear ratio (muscle velocity/fiber velocity). A recent study has shown that a pennate muscle’s gear ratio varies automatically depending on the load such that a muscle operates with a high gear during rapid contractions and low gear during forceful contractions. We examined whether this variable gearing behavior can be replicated in a pennate array of artificial muscles. We used McKibben type pneumatic actuators, which shorten in tension when filled with compressed gas. Similar to muscle fibers, the actuators expand radially during shortening, a feature thought to be a critical part of the variable gearing mechanism in pennate muscles. We arranged McKibben actuators in an array oriented to mimic a pennate muscle, and quantified the system’s gear ratio during contraction against a range of loads. Video was used to measure the gear ratio during each contraction. We find that similar to pennate muscles, the gear ratio decreases significantly with increasing load and that variable gearing results from load-dependent variation in the amount of actuator rotation. These results support the idea that variable gearing in pennate muscles is mediated by difference is fiber rotation and the direction of muscle bulging. The behavior of our artificial muscle array also highlights the potential benefits of bio-inspired architectures in artificial muscle arrays, including the ability to vary force and speed automatically in response to variable loading conditions.

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Biological Inspiration for Musclelike Actuators of Robots

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Soft Robotics: Biological Inspiration, State of the Art, and Future Research

Soft Robotics: Biological Inspiration, State of the Art, and Future Research

Softer is Harder: What Differentiates Soft Robotics from Hard Robotics?

Variable gearing in a biologically inspired pneumatic actuator array

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