Friction and damping of a compliant foot based on granular jamming for legged robots

Hauser, Simon; Eckert, P.; Tuleu, Alexandre; Ijspeert, Auke Jan

doi:10.1109/biorob.2016.7523788

Cited by 32 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…A foot system made of an actuated ankle and five rigid bodies connected via passive joints is presented in [36]; however, for achieving adaptability, they focused more on an active spine and distributed control rather than the mechanics of the foot itself. Other studies on bio-mimetic concepts (e.g., [37] and [38]) implement adaptive mechanisms or mechanical intelligence in robotic feet mainly in order to maximize traction. Finally, feet that attempt to mimic the compliance and adaptability of human feet are presented in works such as [39] and [40], but these provide no significant experimental results.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Feet for Quadrupedal Walkers

et al. 2022

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The vast majority of state-of-the-art walking robots employ flat or ball feet for locomotion, presenting limitations while stepping on obstacles, slopes, or unstructured terrain. Moreover, traditional feet for quadrupeds lack sensing systems that are able to provide information about the environment and about the foot interaction with the surroundings. This further diminishes their value. Inspired by our previous work on soft feet for bipedal robots, we present the SoftFoot-Q, an articulated adaptive foot for quadrupeds. This device is conceived to be robust and able to overcome the limitations of currently employed feet. The core idea behind our adaptive foot design is first introduced and validated through a simplified mathematical formulation of the problem. Subsequently, we present the chosen mechanical implementation to attempt overcoming current limitations. The realized prototype of adaptive foot is integrated and tested on the compliantly actuated quadrupedal robot ANYmal together with an ROS-based real-time foot pose reconstruction software. Both extensive field tests and indoor experiments show noticeable performance improvements, in terms of reduced slippage of the robot, with respect to both flat and ball feet.

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Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Feet for Quadrupedal Walkers

et al. 2022

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“…Hauser et al 2016, 2018A [59,61] ascertained whether the damping properties of cubic granular packings could increase the damping of their robot's paws. Three variants were tested: default ball-shaped feet, and unjammed, and jammed granular membranes.…”

Section: Pawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three variants were tested: default ball-shaped feet, and unjammed, and jammed granular membranes. Both studies dropped the variants onto stationary [59] or moving [61] surfaces. Unjammed variants had the greatest damping, followed by all jammed variants, and the original foot had the least damping.…”

Section: Pawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Jamming exoskeletons have also been a popular topic, with three studies on layer jamming (2014-2019) [55][56][57] and one on granular jamming (2015) [58]. Researchers have shown particular interest in granular paws since 2016 [59][60][61][62][63] and there have been interesting studies on layer jamming's application for support (2016) [64], and damping effectors for UAVs (2017) [65]. This spread is shown in Figure 1.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A Review of Jamming Actuation in Soft Robotics

2020

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Jamming is a popular and versatile soft robotic mechanism, enabling new systems to be developed that can achieve high stiffness variation with minimal volume variation. Numerous applications have been reported, including deep-sea sampling, industrial gripping, and use as paws for legged locomotion. This review explores the state-of-the-art for the three classes of jamming actuator: granular, layer and fibre jamming. We highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these soft robotic systems and propose opportunities for further development. We describe a number of trends, promising avenues for innovative research, and several technology gaps that could push the field forwards if addressed, including the lack of standardization for evaluating the performance of jamming systems. We conclude with perspectives for future studies in soft jamming robotics research, particularly elucidating how emerging technologies, including multi-material 3D printing, can enable the design and creation of increasingly diverse and high-performance soft robotic mechanisms for a myriad of new application areas.

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“…A comparison between membrane materials and different types of granules can be found in e.g. [11] and the concept has been investigated for a number of applications such as grippers [12], [13], dampers [14], [15] and actuators [16], [17].…”

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confidence: 99%

JammJoint: A Variable Stiffness Device Based on Granular Jamming for Wearable Joint Support

Hauser

Robertson

Ijspeert

et al. 2017

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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Abstract-In robotics, controlling the stiffness of the joints that contribute to the robots' degree of freedom dictates the adaptability, versatility, and safety of the whole system. We can achieve variable stiffness or impedance in a robotic system purely by the control or by introducing new material or mechanisms to address cases that require innate safety through system compliancy. This paper presents JammJoint, a compliant and flexible wearable robot, which uses jamming of granular media to vary its stiffness. It consists of a silicone sleeve with hollow sections that are filled with cubic rubber granules and subjected to different levels of vacuum pressure. Unlike contemporary vacuum-based actuators or systems, JammJoint is wearable, portable, and autonomous: It uses a powerful miniature vacuum pump, a small battery, and bluetoothenabled electronics. Experiments revolving around bending and torsional stiffness show that the system is able to achieve up to a fourfold increase in spring stiffness. Further measurements of individual variable stiffness structures indicate that for other modes of deformation, including simply supported bending or compression for alternative linear applications, higher changes in stiffness over a factor of seven are possible. These aspects make mobile jammingbased stiffness variation as wearable joint assistance promising for future applications such as rehabilitation after injuries and joint support in challenging working conditions. Index Terms-Wearable robots, soft material robotics, variable stiffness joint, vacuum jamming, hydraulic/pneumatic actuators.

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Friction and damping of a compliant foot based on granular jamming for legged robots

Cited by 32 publications

References 18 publications

Adaptive Feet for Quadrupedal Walkers

Adaptive Feet for Quadrupedal Walkers

A Review of Jamming Actuation in Soft Robotics

JammJoint: A Variable Stiffness Device Based on Granular Jamming for Wearable Joint Support

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