Bio-Inspired Design of Soft Robotic Assistive Devices: The Interface of Physics, Biology, and Behavior

Goldfield, Eugene C.; Park, Yong‐Lae; Chen, Bor-Rong; Hsu, Wen-Hao; Young, Diana; Wehner, Michael; Kelty-Stephen, Damian G.; Stirling, Leia; Weinberg, Marc S.; Newman, Dava; Nagpal, Radhika; Saltzman, Elliot; Holt, Kenneth G.; Walsh, Conor J.; Wood, Robert J.

doi:10.1080/10407413.2012.726179

Cited by 37 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 83 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We have seen an evolution from rigid exoskeletons with rigid actuators (Yagn, 1890; Makinson, 1971; Kawamoto et al, 2003; Pratt et al, 2004; Guizzo and Goldstein, 2005; Kazerooni and Steger, 2006; Walsh et al, 2007) to rigid exoskeletons with soft pneumatic actuators (Yamamoto et al, 2003; Tsuji et al, 2013). In parallel, we have seen soft exosuits with rigid tendon-drive actuators (Galiana et al, 2012; Asbeck et al, 2013) transition to soft exosuits with soft pneumatic actuators (Park et al, 2014; Goldfield et al, 2012; Wehner et al, 2013). However, the use of soft materials presents design and fabrication challenges in the fundamental robotic technologies available for actuation, sensing, and control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Wearable soft sensing suit for human gait measurement

Mengüç

Park

Pei

et al. 2014

The International Journal of Robotics Research

Self Cite

350

182

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wearable robots based on soft materials will augment mobility and performance of the host without restricting natural kinematics. Such wearable robots will need soft sensors to monitor the movement of the wearer and robot outside the lab. Until now wearable soft sensors have not demonstrated significant mechanical robustness nor been systematically characterized for human motion studies of walking and running. Here, we present the design and systematic characterization of a soft sensing suit for monitoring hip, knee, and ankle sagittal plane joint angles. We used hyper-elastic strain sensors based on microchannels of liquid metal embedded within elastomer, but refined their design with the use of discretized stiffness gradients to improve mechanical durability. We found that these robust sensors could stretch up to 396% of their original lengths, would restrict the wearer by less than 0.17% of any given joint’s torque, had gauge factor sensitivities of greater than 2.2, and exhibited less than 2% change in electromechanical specifications through 1500 cycles of loading–unloading. We also evaluated the accuracy and variability of the soft sensing suit by comparing it with joint angle data obtained through optical motion capture. The sensing suit had root mean square (RMS) errors of less than 5° for a walking speed of 0.89 m/s and reached a maximum RMS error of 15° for a running speed of 2.7 m/s. Despite the deviation of absolute measure, the relative repeatability of the sensing suit’s joint angle measurements were statistically equivalent to that of optical motion capture at all speeds. We anticipate that wearable soft sensing will also have applications beyond wearable robotics, such as in medical diagnostics and in human–computer interaction.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Wearable soft sensing suit for human gait measurement

Mengüç

Park

Pei

et al. 2014

The International Journal of Robotics Research

Self Cite

350

182

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…71 Soft wearable robots are also promising for improving the life of patients suffering from stroke or brain injuries by providing assistance with grasping and other motor tasks. Soft hand orthotic robots can perform a task as artificial muscle popularly named as second skin [28], which compensates body's impaired motor function cooperating with healthy tissue [25].…”

Section: Soft Robots In Rehabilitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Robotics With Compliance and Adaptation for Biomedical Applications and Forthcoming Challenges

Banerjee¹,

Tse²,

Ren³

2018

International Journal of Robotics and Automation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biology has always motivated engineers to come up with efficient and reliable machines to move in complex environments. The dexterity, softness, and body compliance of natural system such as cephalopods or caterpillars have inspired robotic engineers to incorporate soft, deformable materials such as gels and elastomers into their designs.Hence, the inception of soft robots shifts the paradigm and trends in robotics, which could potentially revolutionize health care, humanrobot interaction, field exploration, rehabilitation, and related applications. Throughout this review article, we have restricted our discussion to the applications of soft robots in biomedical domains exclusively and the perennial challenges faced therein.

show abstract

“…Soft material sensors are commonly used to interface with deformable surfaces as they can accommodate the large engineering strains experienced by the surface. Unlike sensors consisting of stiff materials, soft piezoresistive sensors can be used on skin to measure strain [10][11][12] or pressure. 13,14 These types of sensors have been made possible through the development of new, highly deformable, electrically conductive materials, 15,16 the most common variants of which are aggregates consisting of conductive particles (e.g., silver nanowires [AgNWs], [17][18][19][20][21][22] silver microparticles, 23 graphene, 14,24,25 or carbon nanotubes 11,12,14 ) interspersed within a polymeric binding agent, such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or polyimide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Soft Material Flow Sensor for Micro Air Vehicles

Sundin

Kokmanian

et al. 2021

Soft Robotics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To control and navigate micro air vehicles (MAVs) efficiently, there is a need for small, lightweight, durable, sensitive, fast, and low-power airspeed sensors. When designing sensors to meet these requirements, soft materials are promising alternatives to more traditional materials due to the large deformations they can withstand. In this article, a new concept of a soft material flow sensor is presented based on elastic filament velocimetry, which fulfills all necessary criteria. This technique measures flow velocity by relating it to the strain of a soft ribbon suspended between two static supports and subjected to a flow of interest. The ribbon is manufactured from polydimethylsiloxane and can be made piezoresistive by the addition of silver nanowires. With the described manufacturing method, the sensor can be made using common laboratory tools, outside of a clean room, significantly reducing its complexity. Furthermore, it can be operated using a simple and lightweight circuit, making it a convenient alternative for MAVs. Using a piezoresistive material allows for the flow velocity to be calibrated to the resistance change of the strained ribbon. Although certain challenges remain unsolved, such as polymer creep, the sensor has demonstrated its ability to measure flow velocities down to 4 m/s in air through experiments. A time-dependent analytical model is also provided. The model shows that the current sensor has a bandwidth of 480 Hz. Most importantly, the sensitivity and the bandwidth of the sensor can be varied strictly by modifying the geometry and the material properties of the ribbon.

show abstract

Bio-Inspired Design of Soft Robotic Assistive Devices: The Interface of Physics, Biology, and Behavior

Cited by 37 publications

References 83 publications

Wearable soft sensing suit for human gait measurement

Wearable soft sensing suit for human gait measurement

Soft Robotics With Compliance and Adaptation for Biomedical Applications and Forthcoming Challenges

A Soft Material Flow Sensor for Micro Air Vehicles

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About