Integrating Soft Robotics with the Robot Operating System: A Hybrid Pick and Place Arm

Abstract

Soft robotic systems present a variety of new opportunities for solving complex problems. The use of soft robotic grippers, for example, can simplify the complexity in tasks such as the grasping of irregular and delicate objects. Adoption of soft robotics by the informatics community and industry, however, has been slow and this is, in-part, due to the amount of hardware and software that must be developed from scratch for each use of soft system components. In this paper, we detail the design, fabrication, and validation of an open-source framework that we designed to lower the barrier to entry for integrating soft robotic subsystems. This framework is built on the robot operating system (ROS), and we use it to demonstrate a modular, soft-hard hybrid system, which is capable of completing pick and place tasks. By lowering this barrier to entry through our open sourced hardware and software, we hope that system designers and Informatics researchers will find it easy to integrate soft components into their existing ROS-enabled robotic systems.

Diaphragm-Type Pneumatic-Driven Soft Grippers for Precision Harvesting

“…On the other hand, authors such as [74] used rigid components embedded in soft actuators. This hybrid concept was developed in recent decades as a combination of soft robotics and rigid robotics [74,75]. The gripper concept proposed in this article can be studied as a particular case of a hybrid grippers, not only because there is a physical combination between these two technologies but also because the rigid structure establishes a series of constraints on the DoFs of the soft actuator, which facilitates the control of the gripper.…”

Soft Robots for Extreme Environments: Removing Electronic Control

“…Integrating soft robotic components with other types of robotic systems offers advantages control and hardware and can create a system greater than the sum of its parts. For example, Stokes et al [9] and McKenzie et al [10] developed hybrid robots for grasping and manipulation. A hard robotic component provided definite and fast positioning of the end effector while a soft gripper produced an enveloping grip that was tolerant to positioning error and object irregularity.…”

Conductive Fabric Heaters for Heat-Activated Soft Actuators

“…Therefore, a different type of heating pattern will have to be designed to meet the resistance requirements for this high resistivity material. To counteract this material's high resistivity, this heating pattern will have to have wider cross sections and be shorter in length, according to Equation (1). Another way to reduce the resistance to the desired level, these Thermionyx fabric heaters can be placed in parallel to reduce the total resistance.…”

“…Precise and flexible actuation is currently of interest in the fields of hybrid (soft and rigid) robotics [1], assistive living devices [2], and medical applications through the use of soft robotic actuators [3]. Assimilation of soft components into pre-existing robotic operating systems, such as a pick and place arm, creates hybrid robotic platforms that can perform complex grasping manipulation tasks with acceptable levels of precision [1].…”

“…Precise and flexible actuation is currently of interest in the fields of hybrid (soft and rigid) robotics [1], assistive living devices [2], and medical applications through the use of soft robotic actuators [3]. Assimilation of soft components into pre-existing robotic operating systems, such as a pick and place arm, creates hybrid robotic platforms that can perform complex grasping manipulation tasks with acceptable levels of precision [1]. To assist patients overcoming spinal cord injury with activities of daily living, soft robotic gloves with pneumatic elastomer actuators have been implemented, improving hand functionality by 33.42 ± 15.43% based on participant scores of object manipulation tests [2].…”