RoBoa: Construction and Evaluation of a Steerable Vine Robot for Search and Rescue Applications

Maur, Pascal Auf der; Djambazi, Betim; Haberthur, Yves; Hormann, Patricia; Kubler, Alexander; Lustenberger, Michael; Sigrist, Samuel; Vigen, Oda; Förster, Julian; Achermann, Florian; Hampp, Elias; Katzschmann, Robert K.; Siegwart, Roland

doi:10.1109/robosoft51838.2021.9479192

Cited by 43 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The caps with roller mechanisms [15] (passive and active rollers), and [16] (passive rollers), shown in Fig. 2 d), are designs in which the robot body material is fed through rollers, and in which multiple internal and external parts need to work together.…”

Section: Current Cap Designsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Cap for Eversion Robots

Cem¹,

Skach²,

Kaleel³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Growing robots based on the eversion principle are known for their ability to extend rapidly, from within, along their longitudinal axis, and, in doing so, reach deep into hitherto inaccessible, remote spaces. Despite many advantages, eversion robots also present significant challenges, one of which is maintaining sensory payload at the tip without restricting the eversion process. A variety of tip mechanisms has been proposed by the robotics community, among them rounded caps of relatively complex construction that are not always compatible with functional hardware, such as sensors or navigation pouches, integrated with the main eversion structure. Moreover, many tip designs incorporate rigid materials, reducing the robot's flexibility and consequent ability to navigate through narrow openings. Here, we address these shortcomings and propose a design to overcome them: a soft, entirely fabric based, cylindrical cap that can easily be slipped onto the tip of eversion robots. Having created a series of caps of different sizes and materials, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate our new design in terms of four key aspects: eversion robot made from multiple layers of everting material, solid objects protruding from the eversion robot, squeezability, and navigability. In all scenarios, we can show that our soft, flexible cap is robust in its ability to maintain its position and is capable of transporting payloads such as a camera across long distances. We also demonstrate that the robot's ability to move through restricted aperture openings and indeed its overall flexibility is virtually unhindered by the addition of our cap. The paper discusses the advantages of this design and gives further recommendations in relation to aspects of its engineering.

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Section: Current Cap Designsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Cap for Eversion Robots

Cem¹,

Skach²,

Kaleel³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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show abstract

“…The growing tip has the directional control, enabling steering, while the “grown body” maintains its deformed shape. Growing can be achieved through continuous 3D printing ( Sadeghi et al, 2017 ) or by inflation of inverted thin-wall tubes (so-called vine robots), either single tube ( Hawkes et al, 2017 ; der Maur et al, 2021 ) or multiple small tubes ( Tsukagoshi et al, 2011 ). In 3D printing growbots, steering is achieved through a differential material deposition along the cross-section, resulting in the formation of a curvature.…”

Section: Soft Robotics For Infrastructure Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vine robots ( Figure 2B ), instead, can steer through an asymmetric lengthening of the inflated tip. In both systems the tip acts as sensors’ carrier to enable monitoring and inspections tasks, using cameras ( Tsukagoshi et al, 2011 ; Hawkes et al, 2017 ), IMUs, speaker and microphone for communicating with possible trapped persons ( der Maur et al, 2021 ), environmental sensors ( Sadeghi et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Soft Robotics For Infrastructure Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding tests in realistic environments, RoBoa, a vine robot developed at ETH Zurich ( der Maur et al, 2021 ), has been successfully deployed in a debris site used for training civil security practitioners. The robot was teleoperated to navigate through rubble and locate a trapped person 10 m far from the growing starting point, showing the potential of such soft robotic systems.…”

Section: Soft Robotics For Infrastructure Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soft robotics for infrastructure protection

Milana

2022

Front. Robot. AI

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The paradigm change introduced by soft robotics is going to dramatically push forward the abilities of autonomous systems in the next future, enabling their applications in extremely challenging scenarios. The ability of soft robots to safely interact and adapt to the surroundings is key to operate in unstructured environments, where the autonomous agent has little or no knowledge about the world around it. A similar context occurs when critical infrastructures face threats or disruptions, for examples due to natural disasters or external attacks (physical or cyber). In this case, autonomous systems may be employed to respond to such emergencies and have to be able to deal with unforeseen physical conditions and uncertainties, where the mechanical interaction with the environment is not only inevitable but also desirable to successfully perform their tasks. In this perspective, I discuss applications of soft robots for the protection of infrastructures, including recent advances in pipelines inspection, rubble search and rescue, and soft aerial manipulation, and promising perspectives on operations in radioactive environments, underwater monitoring and space exploration.

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“…Thus the effect of the gas energy on the system dynamics is more pronounced compared to conventional pneumatic drives or to other soft robots. Soft growing robots are employed for inspection of cluttered environments, for search and rescue operations [3], and in a more recent embodiment also for minimally invasive surgery [4]. One of the challenges characterizing soft growing robots is retraction, which requires additional actuators to rewind the inner membrane [5] and can lead to buckling of the tubing [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model-Based Eversion Control of Soft Growing Robots With Pneumatic Actuation

Franco

2022

IEEE Control Syst. Lett.

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This letter investigates the model based position control of soft growing robots with pneumatic actuation that extend according to the principle known as eversion. A dynamical model of the system which accounts for the the energy of the ideal gas is presented by employing the port-Hamiltonian formulation. A new control law is constructed with an energy shaping approach. An adaptive observer is employed to compensate the effect of external forces, including that of gravity. Numerical simulations indicate that the proposed controller is superior to simpler energy shaping algorithms.

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RoBoa: Construction and Evaluation of a Steerable Vine Robot for Search and Rescue Applications

Cited by 43 publications

References 16 publications

Soft Cap for Eversion Robots

Soft Cap for Eversion Robots

Soft robotics for infrastructure protection

Model-Based Eversion Control of Soft Growing Robots With Pneumatic Actuation

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