Development of flexible microactuator and its applications to robotic mechanisms

Suzumori, Koichi; Iikura, Shoichi; Tanaka, Hirohisa

doi:10.1109/robot.1991.131850

Cited by 333 publications

(242 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Once pressurized, the actuator will keep its position with little or no additional energy consumption. FEAs can be operated pneumatically 27,28,29,30,10 or hydraulically 31,32 . Given a small number of options for pressurized working fluid generation, and a significant difference between the time constants for the generators and actuators, pressure regulating components such as regulators and valves are necessary.…”

Section: Actuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

Rus

Tolley

2015

Nature

4,170

2,656

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Conventionally, engineers have employed rigid materials to fabricate precise, predictable robotic systems, which are easily modeled as rigid members connected at discrete joints. Natural systems, however, often match or exceed the performance of robotic systems with deformable bodies. Cephalopods, for example, achieve amazing feats of manipulation and locomotion without a skeleton; even vertebrates like humans achieve dynamic gaits by storing elastic energy in their compliant bones and soft tissues. Inspired by nature, engineers have begun to explore the design and control of soft-bodied robots composed of compliant materials. This Review discusses recent developments in the emerging field of soft robotics.

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Section: Actuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

Rus

Tolley

2015

Nature

4,170

2,656

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“…Recently, there has been significant progress in the field of soft robotics, with the development of many soft grippers (5,6), locomotion robots (7,8), and assistive devices (9). Although their inherent compliance, easy fabrication, and ability to achieve complex output motions from simple inputs have made soft robots very popular (10,11), there is growing recognition that the development of methods for efficiently designing actuators for particular functions is essential to the advancement of the field.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic design of fiber-reinforced soft actuators for trajectory matching

Connolly

Walsh

Bertoldi

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

386

266

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Soft actuators are the components responsible for producing motion in soft robots. Although soft actuators have allowed for a variety of innovative applications, there is a need for design tools that can help to efficiently and systematically design actuators for particular functions. Mathematical modeling of soft actuators is an area that is still in its infancy but has the potential to provide quantitative insights into the response of the actuators. These insights can be used to guide actuator design, thus accelerating the design process. Here, we study fluid-powered fiberreinforced actuators, because these have previously been shown to be capable of producing a wide range of motions. We present a design strategy that takes a kinematic trajectory as its input and uses analytical modeling based on nonlinear elasticity and optimization to identify the optimal design parameters for an actuator that will follow this trajectory upon pressurization. We experimentally verify our modeling approach, and finally we demonstrate how the strategy works, by designing actuators that replicate the motion of the index finger and thumb.soft robotics | fiber-reinforced actuators | customized actuators I n the field of robotics, it is essential to understand how to design a robot such that it can perform a particular motion for a target application. For example, this robot could be a robot arm that moves along a certain path or a wearable robot that assists with motion of a limb. For conventional hard robots, methods have been developed to describe the forward kinematics (i.e., for given actuator inputs, what will the configuration of the robot be) and inverse kinematics (i.e., for a desired configuration of the robot, what should the actuator inputs be) (1-4).Recently, there has been significant progress in the field of soft robotics, with the development of many soft grippers (5, 6), locomotion robots (7,8), and assistive devices (9). Although their inherent compliance, easy fabrication, and ability to achieve complex output motions from simple inputs have made soft robots very popular (10, 11), there is growing recognition that the development of methods for efficiently designing actuators for particular functions is essential to the advancement of the field. To this end, some research groups have begun focusing their efforts on modeling and characterizing soft actuators (12-20). In particular, significant progress has been made on solving the forward kinematics problem (16-19) and even on using dynamic modeling to perform motion planning (14). However, the practical problem of designing a soft actuator to achieve a particular motion remains an issue. Finite element (FE) analysis has previously been used as a design tool to find the optimal geometric parameters for a soft pneumatic actuator, given some design criteria (15). Although this procedure yields some nice results, only basic motions (linear or bending) were studied, because the method is computationally intensive. An alternative approach is to use analytical modeling...

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“…[4,5] The first generation of these systems-originally sketched by Suzumori, [6][7][8] and then realized and elaborated by us, [5,[9][10][11][12][13] and by others [4] -use pneumatic actuators, comprising networks of micro-channels; in our systems, differential expansion of these pneumatic networks (PneuNets) by pressurization using air produces motions (especially bending, curling, and variants on them) that are already established as useful in grippers, and interesting for their potential in walkers, tentacles, and a number of other soft, actuated systems. [14] 4 Although the design of the first of these systems has been relatively simple, the motion they produce on actuation can be surprisingly sophisticated: for example, a representative structure-the "finger" or "tentacle" of a gripper-curls non-uniformly, starting from its tip and proceeding to its stem, although the pressure applied in the PneuNet is approximately uniform throughout the system of inflatable channels.…”

Section: Motionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buckling of Elastomeric Beams Enables Actuation of Soft Machines

et al. 2015

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Motion 3Historically, many machines (especially robots) were designed to mimic the motions of humans and other animals, but to add power, speed, "endurance," and reproducibility to those motions. [1] The robots on industrial assembly lines, for example, extend the capabilities of the workers that originally carried out assembly by hand using simple tools, by adding power, complex tools, indifference to environmental conditions, and mechanical "endurance". Similarly, four-wheeled robots are loosely derived from fourlimbed animals, and aerial drones can be traced in design backwards in time through manned aircraft, to birds. Conventional machines-especially those fabricated from metal, ceramics, and structural polymers (so-called "hard" machines)-can carry out almost arbitrarily complex motions using pulleys, cables, gears, and electric or hydraulic actuators. To achieve controlled motion, however, they also normally require complex systems for active controls (networks of sensors, actuators, and feedback controllers). [2,3] Some of these "hard" systems are exquisitely and highly developed, but can be heavy, energy inefficient, dangerous to humans, and expensive.We are exploring soft actuators and robots-machines modeled after simpler animals (e.g., starfish, worms, and squid) having no hard internal or external structures, and fabricated entirely or predominantly in soft, compliant polymers. [4,5] The first generation of these systems-originally sketched by Suzumori, [6][7][8] and then realized and elaborated by us, [5,[9][10][11][12][13] and by others [4] -use pneumatic actuators, comprising networks of micro-channels; in our systems, differential expansion of these pneumatic networks (PneuNets) by pressurization using air produces motions (especially bending, curling, and variants on them) that are already established as useful in grippers, and interesting for their potential in walkers, tentacles, and a number of other soft, actuated systems. [14] 4 Although the design of the first of these systems has been relatively simple, the motion they produce on actuation can be surprisingly sophisticated: for example, a representative structure-the "finger" or "tentacle" of a gripper-curls non-uniformly, starting from its tip and proceeding to its stem, although the pressure applied in the PneuNet is approximately uniform throughout the system of inflatable channels. [10,11] This motion reflects a non-linear property of soft materials and structures, referred to as a "snapthrough instability". [15][16][17][18][19] Although nonlinear properties of materials are often considered a disadvantage, this type of non-linearity, illustrated by snap-through, and other complex mechanical characteristics of soft systems, are proving to be useful, and to offer new capabilities to effectors, machines, and robots, because they enable a range of motions of sufficient complexity that-although they might be possible to replicate in a hard robotic system [20] -it would be complicated and expensive to do so. This paper demonstrates the ut...

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Development of flexible microactuator and its applications to robotic mechanisms

Cited by 333 publications

References 3 publications

Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

Automatic design of fiber-reinforced soft actuators for trajectory matching

Buckling of Elastomeric Beams Enables Actuation of Soft Machines

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