Soft Robotics as an Enabling Technology for Agroforestry Practice and Research

Chowdhary, Girish; Gazzola, Mattia; Krishnan, Girish; Soman, Chinmay; Lovell, Sarah Taylor

doi:10.3390/su11236751

Cited by 42 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Note that many papers provide impressive demonstrators but without targeting specific applications. [6,7,12,14,18,75,95] Manipulator [10,15,22,28,44,90,92,159] Microfluidic [40,44] Assistive device [26] Agroforestery [203] Not specified [85,94,178] Multiple curvature…”

Section: Complex Motions and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Programmable Stimuli-Responsive Actuators for Complex Motions in Soft Robotics: Concept, Design and Challenges

et al. 2020

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During the last years, great progress was made in material science in terms of concept, design and fabrication of new composite materials with conferred properties and desired functionalities. The scientific community paid particular interest to active soft materials, such as soft actuators, for their potential as transducers responding to various stimuli aiming to produce mechanical work. Inspired by this, materials engineers today are developing multidisciplinary approaches to produce new active matters, focusing on the kinematics allowed by the material itself more than on the possibilities offered by its design. Traditionally, more complex motions beyond pure elongation and bending are addressed by the robotics community. The present review targets encompassing and rationalizing a framework which will help a wider scientific audience to understand, sort and design future soft actuators and methods enabling complex motions. Special attention is devoted to recent progress in developing innovative stimulus-responsive materials and approaches for complex motion programming for soft robotics. In this context, a challenging overview of the new materials as well as their classification and comparison (performances and characteristics) are proposed. In addition, the great potential of soft transducers are outlined in terms of kinematic capabilities, illustrated by the related application. Guidelines are provided to design actuators and to integrate asymmetry enabling motions along any of the six basic degrees of freedom (translations and rotations), and strategies towards the programming of more complex motions are discussed. As a final note, a series of manufacturing methods are described and compared, from molding to 3D and 4D printing. The review ends with a Perspectives section, from material science and microrobotic points of view, on the soft materials’ future and close future challenges to be overcome.

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Section: Complex Motions and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Programmable Stimuli-Responsive Actuators for Complex Motions in Soft Robotics: Concept, Design and Challenges

et al. 2020

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“…As the most direct way of haptic interaction, we adopt a novel soft-robotic technology (Chowdhary et al, 2019) to construct user interface on the handles for better and safer interacting experience comparing to the existing products.The handles are designed to be soft with certain elasticity to withstand falling shock and provide comfortable touch. With the physical data (force, pressure, etc.)…”

Section: Sensing Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Smart Robotic Walker With Intelligent Close-Proximity Interaction Capabilities for Elderly Mobility Safety

et al. 2020

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The elderly population has rapidly increased in past years, bringing huge demands for elderly serving devices, especially for those with mobility impairment. Present assistant walkers designed for elderly users are primitive with limited user interactivity and intelligence. We propose a novel smart robotic walker that targets a convenient-to-use indoor walking aid for the elderly. The walker supports multiple modes of interactions through voice, gait or haptic touch, and allows intelligent control via learning-based methods to achieve mobility safety. Our design enables a flexible, initiative and reliable walker due to the following: (1) we take a hybrid approach by combining the conventional mobile robotic platform with the existing rollator design, to achieve a novel robotic system that fulfills expected functionalities; (2) our walker tracks users in front by detecting lower limb gait, while providing close-proximity walking safety support; (3) our walker can detect human intentions and predict emergency events, e.g., falling, by monitoring force pressure on a specially designed soft-robotic interface on the handle; (4) our walker performs reinforcement learning-based sound source localization to locate and navigate to the user based on his/her voice signals. Experiment results demonstrate the sturdy mechanical structure, the reliability of multiple novel interactions, and the efficiency of the intelligent control algorithms implemented. The demonstration video is available at: https://sites.google.com/view/smart-walker-hku.

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“…For many applications involving hazardous or dangerous environments (e.g., factory workspace or deep ocean), remote control of robots (including soft manipulators [ 16 ] ) is desired. Human–machine interface (HMI) can achieve two‐way information transmission between human and machines and has been widely used in a broad spectrum of fields, such as smart electronics, robotics, and virtual or augmented reality (VR/AR).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Robotic Manipulation System Capable of Stiffness Variation and Dexterous Operation for Safe Human–Machine Interactions

Chen

Pang

Cao

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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Soft robots have attracted great attention in the past decades owing to their unique flexibility and adaptability for accomplishing tasks via simple control strategies, as well as their inherent safety for interactions with humans and environments. Here, a soft robotic manipulation system capable of stiffness variation and dexterous operations through a remotely controlled manner is reported. The smart manipulation system consists of a soft omnidirectional arm, a dexterous multimaterial gripper, and a self‐powered human–machine interface (HMI) for teleoperation. The cable‐driven soft arm is made of soft elastomers and embedded with low melting point alloy as a stiffness‐tuning mechanism. The self‐powered HMI patches are designed based on the triboelectric nanogenerator that utilizes a sliding mode of tribo‐layers made of copper and polytetrafluoroethylene. The novel soft manipulation system has great potential for soft and remote manipulation and human machine interactions in a variety of applications from elderly care to surgical operation to agriculture harvesting.

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Soft Robotics as an Enabling Technology for Agroforestry Practice and Research

Cited by 42 publications

References 71 publications

Programmable Stimuli-Responsive Actuators for Complex Motions in Soft Robotics: Concept, Design and Challenges

Programmable Stimuli-Responsive Actuators for Complex Motions in Soft Robotics: Concept, Design and Challenges

A Smart Robotic Walker With Intelligent Close-Proximity Interaction Capabilities for Elderly Mobility Safety

Soft Robotic Manipulation System Capable of Stiffness Variation and Dexterous Operation for Safe Human–Machine Interactions

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