Bio-inspired annelid robot: a dielectric elastomer actuated soft robot

Research in soft matter engineering has introduced new approaches in robotics and wearable devices that can interface with the human body and adapt to unpredictable environments. However, many promising applications are limited by the dependence of soft systems on electrical or pneumatic tethers. Recent work in soft actuation and electronics has made removing such cords more feasible, heralding a variety of applications from autonomous field robotics to wireless biomedical devices. Here we review the development of functional untethered soft robotics. We focus on recent advances in soft robotic actuation, sensing and integration as they relate to untethered systems, and consider the key challenges the field faces in engineering systems that could have practical use in real-world conditions.

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“…5, these include implementations that contain SMAs 54,55 (Fig. 5a,b), DEAs 63,68,117 (Fig. 5c-e), pneumatics 32 (Fig.…”

Section: Systems-level Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untethered soft robotics

2018

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“…On the basis of this principle, many DEA configurations have been invented to generate different degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions, such as rectilinear motion [4], rotational motion [5], and bending motion [6]. It is also interesting to find that these motions can mimic natural muscle, which makes them promising as artificial muscles for bioinspired soft robots, for instance, an arm wrestling robot [7], two locomotive robots [8,9], and a swimming fish [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Viscoelastic Hysteresis of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators with a Modified Rate-Dependent Prandtl–Ishlinskii Model

Zou

2018

Polymers

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Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are known as a type of electric-driven artificial muscle that have shown promising potential in the field of soft robotics. However, the inherent viscoelastic nonlinearity makes the modeling and control of DEAs challenging. In this paper, we propose a new phenomenological modeling approach with the Prandtl-Ishlinskii (P-I) model to characterize the viscoelastic hysteresis nonlinearity of DEAs. Differently from the commonly used physics-based models, the developed phenomenological model, called the modified rate-dependent P-I model (MRPIM), produces behavior similar to that of physics-based models but without necessarily considering physical insight into the modeling problem. In this way, the developed MRPIM can characterize the asymmetric and rate-dependent viscoelastic hysteresis with a relative simple mathematical format using only the experimental data. To validate the development, experimental tests were conducted with seven different frequencies; four were selected to identify the model parameters and the rest of the data were used to further verify the model. Comparisons between the model prediction and experimental data demonstrate that the MRPIM can precisely describe the viscoelastic hysteresis effect of DEAs with a maximum prediction error of 9.03% and root-mean-square prediction error of 4.50%.

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“…Biology has inspired researchers and engineers to design and develop increasingly more capable robots . Bioinspired robots with soft or partially soft bodies have the potential to be more robust, adaptable for extreme and challenging environments, and safer for human interaction than traditional rigid robots.…”

Section: Combinations Of V‐sptas To Achieve Various Motionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the robot is driven by vacuum, the complete system has a faster velocity of movement and can perform various motions simultaneously, especially when compared with shape‐memory alloys and actuators based on electroactive polymers . This work therefore expands the capability of soft robots while minimizing the complexity of actuator design and significantly reducing the manufacturing cost.…”

Section: Combinations Of V‐sptas To Achieve Various Motionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vacuum‐Powered Soft Pneumatic Twisting Actuators to Empower New Capabilities for Soft Robots

Zhang

Chen

Zou

et al. 2018

Adv Materials Technologies

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working. With the development of fabrication technology of soft robots, entirely flexible manipulator [9][10][11][12][13] and gripper [14][15][16][17][18] have been achieved. However, none of the existing soft actuators are appropriate for entirely flexible joint. Therefore, flexible twisting actuators with diverse functions and easy manufacture are needed to be designed.Pressurized air has been widely used as the main power source for soft actuators to achieve twisting or rotary motion, although an overpressure risk needs to be carefully considered in actuator design. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Lee et al., [19] Morin et al., [20] and Lazarus et al. [21] designed a range of twisting actuators powered by positive pressure with twisting angles of less than 62°. To improve performance, Connolly et al. [22] developed soft fluidic actuators reinforced by fibers, which can rotate up to 180°. They combined the actuators with different fiber angles in series to create a wormlike soft robot that could navigate through a pipe and insert prongs into holes. However, the actuator length needs to be increased to achieve larger twisting angles, which limits their application as flexible joints, since such structure requires a short length. Gorissen et al. [23] proposed a new soft actuator based on angled pneumatic balloon actuator arrays that can perform a large twisting angle of 71° without compromising an increase of actuator length. Four actuators were used to create a two degrees of freedom (DoFs) tilting mirror platform, which could turn at angles of ±25° and ± 29°. However, the actuator is not suitable for the development of soft robots due to its inherent sheet-like structure. A continuous rotary actuator driven by pressurized air was proposed by Gong et al. [24] who designed a pneumatic rotary actuator based on peristaltic motion of elastomeric materials. The actuator consisted of an inflatable stator that was paired with a rotor. A four-wheeled vehicle, which used a combination of the actuators, was prototyped and achieved a speed of 37 mm s −1 . The vehicle could travel over irregular terrains and survive high mechanical impact loads. The actuator was completely soft, but the cyclic fatigue behavior of the elastomeric bladders and delamination at the bonded interfaces were not clear and requires further investigation.Recently, pioneering studies employed the use of vacuum power to achieve torsional motion. [26][27][28] Yang et al. [26] exploited an elastomeric structure which contained a number of elastic beams and interconnected deformable cavities sealed within a Vacuum-powered soft pneumatic actuators (V-SPAs) are a promising enabling technology for a wide range of emerging applications, including artificial muscles, programmable locomotion, and flexible grippers. This is due to their flexible deformation, clean power supply, safe interaction with users, and high reliability compared with alternative actuators. A new vacuum-powered soft pneumatic twisting actuator (V-SPTA) is designed, which has a single seamless...

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Bio-inspired annelid robot: a dielectric elastomer actuated soft robot

Cited by 63 publications

References 28 publications

Untethered soft robotics

Untethered soft robotics

Modeling the Viscoelastic Hysteresis of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators with a Modified Rate-Dependent Prandtl–Ishlinskii Model

Vacuum‐Powered Soft Pneumatic Twisting Actuators to Empower New Capabilities for Soft Robots

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