VaLeNS: Design of a Novel Variable Length Nested Soft Arm

Uppalapati, Naveen Kumar; Krishnan, Girish

doi:10.1109/lra.2020.2967303

Cited by 13 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…As such, our model considers a family of soft-robotic arms that are actuated via the activation of a fiber field embedded in the slender soft arm. Our approach is similar to some of the past modeling developments for soft manipulators [17]- [19], in that it utilizes dimensional reduction to characterize the slender structure of the robotic arm as a one-dimensional Kirchhoff rod [20]. However, the active filament model employed in this work is derived from a rigorous three-dimensional continuummechanics formulation of the fiber-reinforced arm, for a generalized geometry of the embedded fiber field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simulation Tool for Physics-Informed Control of Biomimetic Soft Robotic Arms

Kaczmarski

Goriely

Kuhl

et al. 2023

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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Due to an infinite number of degrees of freedom, soft robotic arms remain challenging to control. Past work has drawn inspiration from biological structures-for example the elephant trunk-to design and control biomimetic soft robotic arms. However, to date, the models used to inform the control of biomimetic arms lack generalizability, and largely rely on qualitative assumptions. Here, we present a computationally efficient methodology to control fiber-based slender soft robotic arms inspired by the theory of active filaments. Our approach seeks to optimize fibrillar activation under prescribed control objectives. We evaluate the methodology under various control objectives, and consider several distinct fiber architectures. Our results suggest that we can efficiently compute fibrillar activations towards the imposed control objective. Based on our findings, we discuss the effect of actuator complexity on actuation capabilities as a function of the number and arrangement of fibers. Our method can be applied universally towards the objective-based control and design of slender soft robotic arms with embedded fibers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simulation Tool for Physics-Informed Control of Biomimetic Soft Robotic Arms

Kaczmarski

Goriely

Kuhl

et al. 2023

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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“…This gripping strategy was inspired by natural instances such as elephant trunks, python body constriction, or cephalopod tentacles that use a continuum finger to helically grasp around the objects, thereby increasing the area of contact and stability between the gripper and objects. [ 41 ] Continuum, helical grippers that are not constrained by any host have the advantage of being free to wrap around objects and adapt to a wide range of object sizes, shapes, and orientations. Especially, these grippers are particularly well‐suited for gripping long and slender objects that have been challenging for single‐point gripping of conventional finger‐based designs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio‐Inspired Conformable and Helical Soft Fabric Gripper with Variable Stiffness and Touch Sensing

Hoang

Phan

Thai

et al. 2020

Adv Materials Technologies

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compliance of constituent materials enables soft grippers to safely work with flexible, fragile, and delicate objects. A great number of actuation methods have been investigated, including cable-driven mechanisms, [19] fluid elastomer actuators (FEA), [20,21] dielectric elastomer actuators, [22,23] magnetic actuators, [24-26] and shape memory materials including metal alloys [27,28] and polymers. [29] Among these actuation methods, FEA is one of the oldest and the most widespread technologies employed for soft robotic grippers owing to a number of advantages such as lightweight, high power-to-weight ratio, large stroke and force production, ease of fabrication, robustness, and low-cost materials. [30,31] FEA-based soft grippers have been mostly developed based on claws or human-like structures consisting of multiple inward-bending fingers. This design is suitable for gripping objects spanning a wide range of sizes. However, existing FEA-based grippers are ill-suited for applications that require high conformability or high-load sustainability. The integration of electro-adhesion, [23,32] gecko adhesion, [33,34] or variable stiffness structures (VSSs) can help improve the load capacity. Several studies also address both the issues by designing robotic fingers that can adjust their effective length via the use of segments of VSS. [21] Two main types of VSSs for soft grippers include vacuum-driven jamming of granules [35,36] or layers, [6] and phase-change materials such as thermoplastics, [12,37] shape memory polymers (SMPs), [20,21,38] and low-melting-point alloys (LMPAs). [22,39,40] In another approach, grippers with closed structures have been investigated in an attempt to improve both conformability and load capacity. [23,24,38-40] However, grippers with closed structures are not able to grip objects that are either smaller or larger than the opening orifice of the gripper. Another approach that has also been investigated involves the use of helical winding to enclose objects. This gripping strategy was inspired by natural instances such as elephant trunks, python body constriction, or cephalopod tentacles that use a continuum finger to helically grasp around the objects, thereby increasing the area of contact and stability between the gripper and objects. [41] Continuum, helical grippers that are not constrained by any host have the advantage of being free to wrap around objects and adapt to a wide range of object sizes, shapes, and orientations. There are many instances in nature where continuum, helical manipulators are used to efficiently grasp different objects with various shapes and sizes. Inspired by nature, this paper introduces a continuum, flat, scalable, helical soft-fabric robotic gripper that is thin and lightweight with stiffness tunability and sensory feedback. The gripper is fabricated by a facile method of simple insertion using a computerized technique from apparel engineering and controlled by a miniature hydraulic source to grasp different objects at different scales and weights. It uses a ...

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Robotic arms in precision agriculture: A comprehensive review of the technologies, applications, challenges, and future prospects

Jin,

Han

2024

Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

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VaLeNS: Design of a Novel Variable Length Nested Soft Arm

Cited by 13 publications

References 31 publications

A Simulation Tool for Physics-Informed Control of Biomimetic Soft Robotic Arms

A Simulation Tool for Physics-Informed Control of Biomimetic Soft Robotic Arms

Bio‐Inspired Conformable and Helical Soft Fabric Gripper with Variable Stiffness and Touch Sensing

Robotic arms in precision agriculture: A comprehensive review of the technologies, applications, challenges, and future prospects

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