Modular Origami Soft Robot with the Perception of Interaction Force and Body Configuration

Abstract

Bio‐inspired soft robots provide a promising solution for robots working in human‐centered scenarios and interacting with unstructured environments. However, the functional versatility and multimodal sensing of soft robots still need improvements. On one hand, the configuration of a soft robot is predefined during manufacturing; on the other hand, the multimodal perception of the deformable soft actuator is challenging. In this work, a reconfigurable and proprioceptive soft origami module is presented, where two kinds of basic actuation modes (i.e., extension and bending) are realized, and multimodal perception is enabled using a novel foldable self‐inductance sensor. As a result, the origami module can be reconfigured to assemble multifunctional robots that can measure interaction force, body configuration, and other environmental information. Dedicated experiments are performed to validate the performance of the proposed origami module. An intelligent gripper assembled using three origami modules is designed with the capabilities of grasping mode adjustment, grasping force measurement, and the grasping target's size measurement. An intelligent jellyfish is assembled using five origami modules, and equipped with buoyancy adjustment and underwater grasping capabilities. The proposed proprioceptive modular soft origami provides an effective solution for versatile and intelligent soft robot design.

Recent Advances in Electrically Driven Soft Actuators across Dimensional Scales from 2D to 3D

“…For soft manipulation, many soft origami robots actuated by an air pump performed as a soft gripper to grab objects [163][164][165] with intelligent sensing functions. [166,167] In the field of machinery manufacturing, origami was employed to build transformable car wheels that showed a high weight-to-payload ratio. [168] Further, inspired by the folded morphology of biological wings, origami is a very good tool to develop small aircrafts for flight movements with retractable wings.…”

Controlling the fold: proprioceptive feedback in a soft origami robot

“…Additionally, range sensing on deformable objects is subject to interference and misalignments between sensors as the actuators deform. Soft mechanical sensors can both be integrated directly into the robot body and provide accurate force and shape estimations ( Kim et al, 2021 ; Dorsey et al, 2022 ; Sun et al, 2022b ; Dong et al, 2022 ; Thuruthel et al, 2019 ; Huang et al, 2022 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). Improving mechanical sensor performance to achieve closed-loop control will be critical to meet future soft robotics sensing and control needs.…”

A Multidirectional External Perception Soft Actuator Based on Flexible Optical Waveguide for Underwater Teleoperation

“…Besides, some sensing origami soft actuators based on different perceptual mechanisms have been applied to underwater environments. [17,18] These studies have demonstrated that soft actuators can respond to external stimuli and achieve more functionality based on intelligent methods. Nevertheless, they lack a comprehensive perception system that can completely integrate and utilize sensors' nonlinear data in actual environments.…”