Inchworm Inspired Multimodal Soft Robots With Crawling, Climbing, and Transitioning Locomotion

et al. 2022

Robotica

In the paper, a novel modular soft robot that can crawl and turn is presented. The modular soft robot is composed of multiple drive modules connected in series, including one head module, one tail module and three body modules. Each module is actuated by the air chamber. Due to the nonlinear performance of the air chamber, the strain energy function of the air chamber is established. The relationship between the displacement of the air chamber expansion wall and the inflation pressure is obtained, and the manufacturing parameters of the air chamber are determined. By dividing the body of the robot into a series of continuous flexible models, the driving force and the friction force of the robot in locomotion are analyzed. An inflation and deflation control method is presented to complete the locomotion. According to the experiment, the crawling speed of the robot can reach 15.53 mm/s (0.03 body length per second). The turning speed of the robot can reach 1.273 °/s. The robot can crawl and turn on the rough blanket surface effectively. The robot can explore and move in a complex and changeable environment.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and locomotion analysis of modular soft robot

Liu

et al. 2022

Robotica

“…Robots that mimic the peristalsis performed by earthworms [13] have been developed and researched [14][15][16][17][18]. In addition, a robot that mimics the behavior of an inchworm has been studied in [19,20]. In contrast, a predesign method that was not a biomimicry was proposed in [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Step Climbing Control of Snake Robot with Prismatic Joints

Iguchi

Nakajima

Ariizumi

et al. 2022

Sensors

The ultimate goal of this research study is to perform continuous rather than sequential movements of prismatic joints for effective motion of a snake robot with prismatic joints in a complex terrain. We present herein a control method for robotic step climbing. This method is composed of two parts: the first involves the shift reference generator that generates the joint motion for climbing a step, and the other is use of the trajectory tracking controller, which generates the joint motion for the head to track the target trajectory. In this method, prismatic joints are divided into those that are directly controlled for climbing a step and those that are represented as redundancies. By directly controlling the link length, it is possible to prevent the trailing part from back motion when climbing a step, and to avoid a singular configuration in the parts represented as redundancies. A snake robot that has rotational and prismatic joints and can move in three-dimensions was developed, and the effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated by experiments using this robot. In the experiment, it was confirmed that the proposed method realizes the step climbing, and the link length limitation using the sigmoid function works effectively.

“…By responding to various stimuli, such as temperature [ 2 ], light [ 3 ], pH [ 4 ], humidity [ 5 ], magnetic fields [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], etc., the robot can be provided with energy for movement, and certain motions can be accomplished. Soft actuators have received increasing attention in the study of bionic robots [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. In nature, many organisms rely on soft tissues to achieve flexible drives to perform complex and precise movements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the help of the development of functional materials and the rational design of mechanical structures, it is possible to imitate the flexible movement behavior of some living organisms in nature [ 11 , 13 , 14 ]. Macroscopic aspects are commonly studied with pneumatic manipulators [ 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multifunctional Light-Driven Swimming Soft Robot for Various Application Scenarios

Shi

et al. 2022

IJMS

The locomotor behavior of creatures in nature can bring a lot of inspiration for the fabrication of soft actuators. In this paper, we fabricated a bionic light-driven swimming soft robot that can perform grasping of tiny objects and achieve the task of object transfer. By adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs), the temperature-sensitive hydrogels can be endowed with light-responsive properties. The fabricated composite hydrogel structure can control the contraction and expansion of volume by light, which is similar to the contraction and diastole behavior of muscles. The oscillation of the fish tail and the grasping action of the normally closed micromanipulator can be achieved by the control of the irradiation of the xenon light source. The bending of the bionic arm can be controlled by the irradiation of a near-infrared (NIR) laser, which transforms the spatial position and posture of the micromanipulator. The proposed scheme is feasible for miniaturized fabrication and application of flexible actuators. This work provides some important insights for the study of light-driven microrobots and light-driven flexible actuators.