One-Shot 3D-Printed Multimaterial Soft Robotic Jamming Grippers

Howard, David; Brett, James; O'Connor, Jack; Letchford, Jordan; Delaney, Gary W.

doi:10.1089/soro.2020.0154

Cited by 34 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The field of gripping and manipulation has a rich research literature exploring soft structures and spans a variety of distinct design approaches including multi-fingered soft grippers [9], [10], programmed deformation in bag-style membranes [11], origami-style grippers [12], and bio-inspired grippers taking inspiration from diverse sources including tentacles [13] and chameleon tongues [14].…”

Section: A Soft Grippingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Materials have been explored as a means to tune jamming performance, with both shape and size of grains playing a major role [19], as well as multi-material membranes to induce programmed deformations [11]. Evolutionary algorithms [20] were used to generate bespoke grains for soft jamming grippers, as well as to explore the possible configuration space of granular morphologies in order to optimise properties for bespoke granular design [21], [22].…”

Section: B Granular Jamming In Soft Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vibration Improves Performance in Granular Jamming Grippers

Mishra¹,

Philips²,

Delaney³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Granular jamming is a popular soft robotics technology that has seen recent widespread applications including industrial gripping, surgical robotics and haptics. However, to date the field has not fully exploited the fundamental science of the jamming phase transition, which has been rigorously studied in the field of statistical and condensed matter physics. This work introduces vibration as a means to improve the properties of granular jamming grippers through vibratory fluidisation and the exploitation of resonant modes within the granular material. We show that vibration in soft jamming grippers can improve holding strength, reduce the downwards force needed for the gripping action, and lead to a simplified setup where the second air pump, generally used for unjamming, could be removed. In a series of studies, we show that frequency and amplitude of the waveforms are key determinants to performance, and that jamming performance is also dependent on temporal properties of the induced waveform. We hope to encourage further study in transitioning fundamental jamming mechanisms into a soft robotics context to improve performance and increase diversity of applications for granular jamming grippers.

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Section: A Soft Grippingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Granular Jamming In Soft Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vibration Improves Performance in Granular Jamming Grippers

Mishra¹,

Philips²,

Delaney³

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The same cannot be said for membrane morphology, although studies show that membrane material significantly affects gripper performance [20]. Preliminary studies have patterned 'nubs' on the inside of the membrane, although their effect on performance was mixed [21] Other preliminary work demonstrates novel multi-material membranes that can induce programmed deformations and improve gripping performance on hard-to-grip objects such as coins [3]. Membrane morphology is a relatively underexplored area of research as creating a variety of morphologies is only practical through techniques including 3D printing, and despite recent breakthroughs (e.g., [22]), modelling the complex interactions between a membrane, the grains, and the environment is an unsolved problem.…”

Section: B Jamming Gripper Design Explorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One potential issue with this approach is overspecialisation caused by testing on a single test object. To assess the generality of the grippers, we test both the baseline and best evolved gripper on three other challenging and geometrically diverse test objects; a a cube, a star, and a coin with approximate size of 25mm [3] (Fig. 6(a)).…”

Section: A Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Granular grippers are therefore largely unsuitable for model-based optimisation and design explorations of granular grippers have to date been limited in scope. This is particularly true for membrane morphology, where complex deformations are tricky to capture via modelling and prone to reality gap effects, but may be a precursor to novel, high performance designs [3]. As such, the most common membrane over the past decade remains a simple spherical latex balloon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Getting a Grip: in Materio Evolution of Membrane Morphology for Soft Robotic Jamming Grippers

Howard¹,

O'Connor²,

Letchford³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The application of granular jamming in soft robotics is a recent and promising new technology offer exciting possibilities for creating higher performance robotic devices. Granular jamming is achieved via the application of a vacuum pressure inside a membrane containing particulate matter, and is particularly interesting from a design perspective, as a myriad of design parameters can potentially be exploited to induce a diverse variety of useful behaviours. To date, the effect of variables such as grain shape and size, as well as membrane material, have been studied as a means of inducing bespoke gripping performance, however the other main contributing factor, membrane morphology, has not been studied due to its particular complexities in both accurate modelling and fabrication. This research presents the first study that optimises membrane morphology for granular jamming grippers, combining multi-material 3D printing and an evolutionary algorithm to search through a varied morphology design space in materio. Entire generations are printed in a single run and gripper retention force is tested and used as a fitness measure. Our approach is relatively scalable, circumvents the need for modelling, and guarantees the real-world performance of the grippers considered. Results show that membrane morphology is a key determinant of gripper performance. Common high performance designs are seen to optimise all three of the main identified mechanisms by which granular grippers generate grip force, are significantly different from a standard gripper morphology, and generalise well across a range of test objects.

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Fabrication and Functionality Integration Technologies for Small‐Scale Soft Robots

Zhang

Qin

et al. 2022

Advanced Materials

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Small‐scale soft robots are attracting increasing interest for visible and potential applications owing to their safety and tolerance resulting from their intrinsic soft bodies or compliant structures. However, it is not sufficient that the soft bodies merely provide support or system protection. More importantly, to meet the increasing demands of controllable operation and real‐time feedback in unstructured/complicated scenarios, these robots are required to perform simplex and multimodal functionalities for sensing, communicating, and interacting with external environments during large or dynamic deformation with the risk of mismatch or delamination. Challenges are encountered during fabrication and integration, including the selection and fabrication of composite/materials and structures, integration of active/passive functional modules with robust interfaces, particularly with highly deformable soft/stretchable bodies. Here, methods and strategies of fabricating structural soft bodies and integrating them with functional modules for developing small‐scale soft robots are investigated. Utilizing templating, 3D printing, transfer printing, and swelling, small‐scale soft robots can be endowed with several perceptual capabilities corresponding to diverse stimulus, such as light, heat, magnetism, and force. The integration of sensing and functionalities effectively enhances the agility, adaptability, and universality of soft robots when applied in various fields, including smart manufacturing, medical surgery, biomimetics, and other interdisciplinary sciences.

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One-Shot 3D-Printed Multimaterial Soft Robotic Jamming Grippers

Cited by 34 publications

References 38 publications

Vibration Improves Performance in Granular Jamming Grippers

Vibration Improves Performance in Granular Jamming Grippers

Getting a Grip: in Materio Evolution of Membrane Morphology for Soft Robotic Jamming Grippers

Fabrication and Functionality Integration Technologies for Small‐Scale Soft Robots

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