Dimension Optimization of Pneumatically Actuated Soft Continuum Manipulators

Peng, Xiangyu; Zhang, Ningbin; Ge, Lisen; Gu, Guoying

doi:10.1109/robosoft.2019.8722816

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…When the friction between the tip and a wall is not small, the friction acts in the direction to prevent falling. Therefore, the actual growing length does not become smaller than L estimated by (9). Thus, predicting the maximum height after pitch-axis bending using this model is helpful when a user navigates the robot in real applications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Novel Growing Robot With Inflatable Structure and Heat-Welding Rotation Mechanism

Satake

Takanishi

Ishii

2020

IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatron.

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Soft robotics has recently become a popular topic owing to its advantages over conventional rigid robotics. In this article, we introduce a soft robot that can grow with its own structure; its main components include an inflatable tube for its body and a tip with an expansion mechanism. The tube is made of conventional laminated film. It leads the robot to improved applicability. The robot can grow along the horizontal and vertical directions, and it can bend around yaw and pitch axis. To achieve this, a mechanism feeds air into the inflatable tube for growing the structure, and another heat welding mechanism allows producing bending points where necessary. The experimental results confirm that the proposed robot can grow in mid-air and bend around the yaw axis with varying bending radii. Further, the robot can climb a wall and displace an upper surface by pitch-axis bending. The designed bending structures are very stable because of heat welding; the growing and climbing capabilities depend on the inner pressure of the tube, and these capabilities allow the robot to select various shapes and move seamlessly in various environments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, results fall far short of the length of Fichter's model (4) (dotted line). The broken line represents the original model(9).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Growing Robot With Inflatable Structure and Heat-Welding Rotation Mechanism

Satake

Takanishi

Ishii

2020

IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatron.

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“…The material of the soft robotic arm was Elastomer M4601 (Wacker Inc.) with a density of 3 1.2 / g cm [19]. Yeoh second-order model of the superelastomer constitutive model was adopted and material was isotropic with the model function of…”

Section: Parameters and Materials Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One single-cavity structure can bend to a fixed direction after the cavity is filled with certain air pressure and only suit for the task requirements of bending in fixed direction [12,13], such as wearable gloves [14][15][16]. For meeting more work requirements and accomplishing bend in multiple directions, twocavity structure [17] and three-cavity structure [18][19][20] of soft robotic arms appeared. Soft robotic arms with these structures can bend in different directions by controlling pressure to one or more cavities to produce the desired bending effect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal Structure and Size of Multi-segment Soft Robotic Arms with Finite Element Method

Zhang

Zhao

2021

E3S Web Conf.

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Pneumatic actuate of multi-segment soft robotic arm is a significant structure and has extensive applications. However, the study of the optimal structure and size of multi-segment soft robotic arm has not been achieved. In this study, the finite element method is used to optimized the structure and size of soft robotic arm. We report that the two-segment structure of soft robotic arm has better performance for the general manipulator operation task through evaluating bending angles with different structures and parameters. The optimal ratio of the total length of non-cavity section to the total length of the soft robotic arm with two-segment is 0.21. And soft robotic arm performs better when the length of the fixed first section, the linkage section between two cavity sections and the end section are equal. Two cavities in each segment has more advantages in tasks of plane bending, while three cavities structure has better adaptability when the task need bend in the space. These results in this study provide a reference and simplify the process for the structure and size design of the multi-segment soft robotic arm in the future.

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“…Unfortunately, this adds significant procedural complexity that is amplified as the device scale is reduced. Generally, multi-chamber actuators employ three chambers distributed with their centers 120° apart (Suzumori et al, 1991a , b ; Benjamin et al, 2012 ; Cianchetti et al, 2013 ; Martinez et al, 2013 ; Yahya et al, 2014 ; Sun et al, 2016 ; Yan et al, 2016 ; Drotman et al, 2017 ; Nguyen et al, 2017 ; Robertson and Paik, 2017 ) and may be fabricated in a number of ways; for example: (i) molding with constant axial cross-sectional cores (Suzumori et al, 1997 ; Martinez et al, 2013 ; Yahya et al, 2014 ; Fu et al, 2020 ); (ii) assembly of pre-formed individual chambers (Cianchetti et al, 2013 ; Matteo et al, 2014 ; Ranzani et al, 2015 ; Nguyen et al, 2017 ; Garbin et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Peng et al, 2019 ); and (iii) 3D-printing of integrated designs (Peele et al, 2015 ; Wallin et al, 2018 ; Yirmibesoglu et al, 2018 ; Drotman et al, 2019 ). Although promising, these methods carry trade-offs between achievable internal chamber geometry, complexity, resilience of assembly, material selection, and practicable actuator scale and feature resolution (Schmitt et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parallel Helix Actuators for Soft Robotic Applications

et al. 2020

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Fabrication of soft pneumatic bending actuators typically involves multiple steps to accommodate the formation of complex internal geometry and the alignment and bonding between soft and inextensible materials. The complexity of these processes intensifies when applied to multi-chamber and small-scale (∼10 mm diameter) designs, resulting in poor repeatability. Designs regularly rely on combining multiple prefabricated single chamber actuators or are limited to simple (fixed cross-section) internal chamber geometry, which can result in excessive ballooning and reduced bending efficiency, compelling the addition of constraining materials. In this work, we address existing limitations by presenting a single material molding technique that uses parallel cores with helical features. We demonstrate that through specific orientation and alignment of these internal structures, small diameter actuators may be fabricated with complex internal geometry in a single material-without-additional design-critical steps. The helix design produces wall profiles that restrict radial expansion while allowing compact designs through chamber interlocking, and simplified demolding. We present and evaluate three-chambered designs with varied helical features, demonstrating appreciable bending angles (>180 •), three-dimensional workspace coverage, and three-times bodyweight carrying capability. Through application and validation of the constant curvature assumption, forward kinematic models are presented for the actuator and calibrated to account for chamber-specific bending characteristics, resulting in a mean model tip error of 4.1 mm. This simple and inexpensive fabrication technique has potential to be scaled in size and chamber numbers, allowing for application-specific designs for soft, high-mobility actuators especially for surgical, or locomotion applications.

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Dimension Optimization of Pneumatically Actuated Soft Continuum Manipulators

Cited by 18 publications

References 25 publications

Novel Growing Robot With Inflatable Structure and Heat-Welding Rotation Mechanism

Novel Growing Robot With Inflatable Structure and Heat-Welding Rotation Mechanism

Optimal Structure and Size of Multi-segment Soft Robotic Arms with Finite Element Method

Parallel Helix Actuators for Soft Robotic Applications

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