Elastic Inflatable Actuators for Soft Robotic Applications

The 20th century's robotic systems have been made from stiff materials, and much of the developments have pursued ever more accurate and dynamic robots, which thrive in industrial automation, and will probably continue to do so for decades to come. However, the 21st century's robotic legacy may very well become that of soft robots. This emerging domain is characterized by continuous soft structures that simultaneously fulfill the role of robotic link and actuator, where prime focus is on design and fabrication of robotic hardware instead of software control. These robots are anticipated to take a prominent role in delicate tasks where classic robots fail, such as in minimally invasive surgery, active prosthetics, and automation tasks involving delicate irregular objects. Central to the development of these robots is the fabrication of soft actuators. This article reviews a particularly attractive type of soft actuators that are driven by pressurized fluids. These actuators have recently gained traction on the one hand due to the technology push from better simulation tools and new manufacturing technologies, and on the other hand by a market pull from applications. This paper provides an overview of the different advanced soft actuator configurations, their design, fabrication, and applications.     

Hardware Sequencing of Inflatable Nonlinear Actuators for Autonomous Soft Robots

Soft robots are an interesting alternative for classic rigid robots in applications requiring interaction with organisms or delicate objects. Elastic in?atable actuators are one of the preferred actuation mechanisms for soft robots since they are intrinsically safe and soft. However, these pneumatic actuators each require a dedicated pressure supply and valve to drive and control their actuation sequence. Because of the relatively large size of pressure supplies and valves compared to electrical leads and electronic controllers, tethering pneumatic soft robots with multiple degrees of freedom is bulky and unpractical. Here, a new approach is described to embed hardware intelligence in soft robots where multiple actuators are attached to the same pressure supply, and their actuation sequence is programmed by the interaction between nonlinear actuators and passive ?ow restrictions. How to model this hardware sequencing is discussed, and it is demonstrated on an 8‐degree‐of‐freedom walking robot where each limb comprises two actuators with a sequence embedded in their hardware. The robot is able to carry pay loads of 800 g in addition to its own weight and is able to walk at travel speeds of 3 body lengths per minute, without the need for complex on‐board valves or bulky tethers.     

基于多智能体的自重构机器人突现控制系统平台的构建

构建了基于多智能体的模块化自重构机器人系统实验平台.在详细分析了自重构系统的主要特点的基础上,设计了一种新型的同构阵列式模块化自重构机器人M-Cubes,阐述了多智能体分布式体系的控制结构,给出了实验平台的设计策略,包括单智能体结构设计、控制系统的硬件设计、单元模块的基本运动和系统运动规划策略.利用Ja-va3D开发了一个仿真试验平台,对各种控制算法进行了仿真和测试评估.     

A Light‐Powered Ultralight Tensegrity Robot with High Deformability and Load Capacity

Traditional hard robots often require complex motion‐control systems to accomplish various tasks, while applications of soft‐bodied robots are limited by their low load‐carrying capability. Herein, a hybrid tensegrity robot composed of both hard and soft materials is constructed, mimicking the musculoskeletal system of animals. Employing liquid crystal elastomer–carbon nanotube composites as artificial muscles in the tensegrity robot, it is demonstrated that the robot is extremely deformable, and its multidirectional locomotion can be entirely powered by light. The tensegrity robot is ultralight, highly scalable, has high load capacity, and can be precisely controlled to move along different paths on multiterrains. In addition, the robot also shows excellent resilience, deployability, and impact‐mitigation capability, making it an ideal platform for robotics for a wide range of applications.     

Living Materials Herald a New Era in Soft Robotics

Living beings have an unsurpassed range of ways to manipulate objects and interact with them. They can make autonomous decisions and can heal themselves. So far, a conventional robot cannot mimic this complexity even remotely. Classical robots are often used to help with lifting and gripping and thus to alleviate the effects of menial tasks. Sensors can render robots responsive, and artificial intelligence aims at enabling autonomous responses. Inanimate soft robots are a step in this direction, but it will only be in combination with living systems that full complexity will be achievable. The field of biohybrid soft robotics provides entirely new concepts to address current challenges, for example the ability to self‐heal, enable a soft touch, or to show situational versatility. Therefore, “living materials” are at the heart of this review. Similarly to biological taxonomy, there is a recent effort for taxonomy of biohybrid soft robotics. Here, an expansion is proposed to take into account not only function and origin of biohybrid soft robotic components, but also the materials. This materials taxonomy key demonstrates visually that materials science will drive the development of the field of soft biohybrid robotics.     

Remotely Light‐Powered Soft Fluidic Actuators Based on Plasmonic‐Driven Phase Transitions in Elastic Constraint

Materials capable of actuation through remote stimuli are crucial for untethering soft robotic systems from hardware for powering and control. Fluidic actuation is one of the most applied and versatile actuation strategies in soft robotics. Here, the first macroscale soft fluidic actuator is derived that operates remotely powered and controlled by light through a plasmonically induced phase transition in an elastomeric constraint. A multiphase assembly of a liquid layer of concentrated gold nanoparticles in a silicone or styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene elastic pocket forms the actuator. Upon laser excitation, the nanoparticles convert light of specific wavelength into heat and initiate a liquid‐to‐gas phase transition. The related pressure increase inflates the elastomers in response to laser wavelength, intensity, direction, and on–off pulses. During laser‐off periods, heating halts and condensation of the gas phase renders the actuation reversible. The versatile multiphase materials actuate—like soft “steam engines”—a variety of soft robotic structures (soft valve, pnue‐net structure, crawling robot, pump) and are capable of operating in different environments (air, water, biological tissue) in a single configuration. Tailored toward the near‐infrared window of biological tissue, the structures actuate also through animal tissue for potential medical soft robotic applications.     

Designing winning robots by careful design of their development process

We present a comprehensive robot development process and its evaluation. We designed this process in the context of a robotics course in high schools. The motivation for designing this new process was improving the robustness and reliability of robots developed by students and preparing students for becoming better designers. The newly designed process proved to be highly successful in designing top quality robots. In the process design, we explored and adapted existing design tools and methods to the specific designers, the nature of the product, the environment, the product needs, and the design context goals. At the end of this thorough design, we selected a synergetic integration of six tools and methods to compose the new comprehensive development process for this product context: conceptual design, fault-tolerant design, atomic requirements, fuzzy logic for control, creative thinking, and microprogramming-based design. The design skills of the students that learned the design process and the performance of robots they designed and participated in an international robotics contest were examined. The high school teams that studied the proposed process won the first places in an international contest. The robots developed by the students had better performance than robots built by engineers and faculty teams. Professional experts rated the robots’ designs as excellent. The students that studied the process demonstrated high level of diverse design skills including creativity and design management capabilities. Additionally, they improved their science subject grades and their attitude toward engineering. Both the results obtained by the study and the authors’ experience in teaching robotics demonstrate that the proposed robot development process could be taught successfully in high school and that it leads to superior robotic products. Our experience also indicates that this process could serve industry design by improving the robustness of robots operating in uncertain environments and supporting fast change management practices.     

Numerical analysis of blast-induced wave propagation using FSI and ALEmulti-material formulations

As explosive blasts continue to cause casualties in both civil and military environments, there is a need to identify the dynamic interaction of blast loading with structures, to know the shock mitigating mechanisms and, most importantly, to identify the mechanisms of blast trauma. This paper examines the air-blast simulation using Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) multi-material formulation. It will explain how the fluid–structure interaction (FSI) can be simulated using a coupling algorithm for the treatment of the fluid as a moving media by a moving mesh using ALE formulation and how the structure is treated on a deformable mesh using a Lagrangian formulation. To validate the numerical approach, as well as to prove its ability to simulate complicated scenarios, comparison of three distinct blast scenarios, i.e., blast from C-4 and TNT in open space and blast on a circular steel plate, with the experimental data was performed. The predicted numerical results match very well with those of experiments. This computational approach is able to accurately predict the relevant aspects of the blast–structure interaction problem, including the blast wave propagation in the medium and the response of the structure to blast loading.     

智能手机UI交互界面人性化设计研究

UI设计侧重于用户使用界面的视觉设计,以界面风格设定、产品性格阐述和情感表达为主要设计内容,而交互设计更注重通过软件以最有效简洁的方式为用户解决问题,交互设计需要通过UI交互界面承载才能得以体现,两者既有区别又有着密切的联系。UI交互界面设计主要有解锁的人性化交互设计、图标的情感化交互设计、3D动态界面交互设计、操作逻辑的人性化交互设计、软硬件巧妙应用的人性化交互设计等表现形式。其设计应遵循"以人为本"的出发点和落脚点、用户使用过程中的趣味性及愉悦感与设计的巧妙结合、在软硬件多重环境下的适应性等设计理念。     

Composite hydrophone devices coupling piezoelectricity and tensegrity

The concept of tensegrity as conceived by Buckminster Fuller has been incorporated into a passive hydrophone device. Tensegrity is described as the physical phenomenon that produces a stable geometric structure using solid compressional elements arranged in tandem with flexible tensional cables. In the devices built by the authors, six PZT 5H™ bars acting as compressional elements in the tensegrity structure have been coupled with tensional bands of either polyaramid or carbon fiber. This stable system is then wrapped with an outer layer of either polyaramid or carbon fiber and rubber film to form a sealed device, which is referred to as a piezotensegritive device in this paper. The six bars are arranged in parallel electrical connectivity for all devices described. The resonant frequency for these devices ranged from 19.5 to 20.3 kHz depending on the material used for wrapping the piezoelectric bars. These devices were also tested in a hydrostatic environment to determine the relevant piezoelectric coefficients. For devices wrapped with carbon fiber, d_h peaked at ∼6000 pC/N and g_h at ∼275 mVm/N. For devices wrapped with polyaramid, d_h peaked at ∼2000pC/N and g_h at ∼100mVm/N. Sensitivities from –182–195 db ref. 1V/μPa were calculated for these devices. Received: 7 September 1999 / Reviewed and accepted: 15 September 1999     

The experimental humanoid robot H7: a research platform for autonomous behaviour

This paper gives an overview of the humanoid robot 'H7', which was developed over several years as an experimental platform for walking, autonomous behaviour and human interaction research at the University of Tokyo. H7 was designed to be a human-sized robot capable of operating autonomously in indoor environments designed for humans. The hardware is relatively simple to operate and conduct research on, particularly with respect to the hierarchical design of its control architecture. We describe the overall design goals and methodology, along with a summary of its online walking capabilities, autonomous vision-based behaviours and automatic motion planning. We show experimental results obtained by implementations running within a simulation environment as well as on the actual robot hardware.     

Development and pilot testing for virtual manufacturing tools with intelligent attributes

The use of synthetic and surrogate tools in training robots and planning events within virtual environments has tremendous potential in making the programming of complex machines simple and easy. For example, by designating tasks off-line with the virtual tools, attributes such as process planning and collision avoidance can be automatically and efficiently incorporated. In our research we have experimented with the use of attribute laden virtual tools in various tasks such as robotic-based grinding and welding processes. Such attribute laden virtual tools aid human operators in path planning as well as in making decisions about the process itself. In this paper we have tested our concepts of virtual tools and the use of attributes such as physical, reflex and command actions. Four sets of experiments were conducted with human subjects. Two kinds of virtual tools were used in these experiments, one with guide plane attributes and the other without them. One set of experiments using the head mounted display interface, tested human performance and evaluated the effect of the learning process in using the virtual tools. Results showed that there was marked improvement in task execution time using the tools laden with guide plane attributes over the unencumbered virtual tools. This paper discusses various future applications of these virtual tools in manufacturing. It is observed that unlike non-haptic visual interfaces, where no physical feed back is available to the user, attribute laden tools could provide a much easier interface to robots.     

Development of a dual-robot system for prototype production

A dual-robot machining system has been developed for manufacturing complex objects. The system consists of two six-axis industrial robots with flexible tool changers, a CAD/CAM package for geometric design and toolpath generation, a robot simulation package for collision avoidance, and a vision system for robot calibration. It offers the flexibility to reconfigure the robots of the system to accommodate workpieces of different shapes and sizes. A prototype of the system has been successfully developed and tested, and shows satisfactory performance in machining quality and control over the configurations of the robots. Examples are given of the application of the system to machining objects with spherical and sculptured surfaces. The system has been shown to be flexible, reconfigurable, automatic, and capable of manufacturing complex prototypes in the current industry environment.     

Shape-memory surfaces for cell mechanobiology

Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) are a new class of smart materials, which have the capability to change from a temporary shape ‘A’ to a memorized permanent shape ‘B’ upon application of an external stimulus. In recent years, SMPs have attracted much attention from basic and fundamental research to industrial and practical applications due to the cheap and efficient alternative to well-known metallic shape-memory alloys. Since the shape-memory effect in SMPs is not related to a specific material property of single polymers, the control of nanoarchitecture of polymer networks is particularly important for the smart functions of SMPs. Such nanoarchitectonic approaches have enabled us to further create shape-memory surfaces (SMSs) with tunable surface topography at nano scale. The present review aims to bring together the exciting design of SMSs and the ever-expanding range of their uses as tools to control cell functions. The goal for these endeavors is to mimic the surrounding mechanical cues of extracellular environments which have been considered as critical parameters in cell fate determination. The untapped potential of SMSs makes them one of the most exciting interfaces of materials science and cell mechanobiology.     

Silk‐based microcarriers: current developments and future perspectives

Cell‐seeded microcarriers (MCs) are currently one of the most promising topics in biotechnology. These systems are supportive structures for cell growth and expansion that allow efficient nutrient and gas transfer between the media and the attached cells. Silk proteins have been increasingly used for this purpose in the past few years due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability and non‐toxicity. To date, several silk fibroin spherical MCs in combination with alginate, gelatin and calcium phosphates have been reported with very interesting outcomes. In addition, other silk‐based three‐dimensional structures such as microparticles with chitosan and collagen, as well as organoids, have been increasingly studied. In this study, the physicochemical and biological properties of these biomaterials, as well as the recent methodologies for their processing and for cell culture, are discussed. The potential biomedical applications are also addressed. In addition, an analysis of the future perspectives is presented, where the potential of innovative silk‐based MCs processing technologies is highlighted.Inspec keywords: biodegradable materials, proteins, calcium compounds, gelatin, biomedical materials, cellular biophysics, molecular biophysicsOther keywords: supportive structures, cell growth, gas transfer, attached cells, silk proteins, biodegradability, nontoxicity, silk fibroin spherical MCs, gelatin, calcium phosphates, silk‐based three‐dimensional structures, chitosan, collagen, physicochemical properties, biological properties, cell culture, silk‐based microcarriers, cell‐seeded microcarriers, biotechnology, efficient nutrient transfer, biocompatibility, alginate, biomedical applications     

Soft Ring-Shaped Cellu-Robots with Simultaneous Locomotion in Batches

Untethered mini-robots can move single cells or aggregates to build complex constructs in confined spaces and may enable various biomedical applications such as regenerative repair in medicine and biosensing in bioengineering. However, a significant challenge is the ability to control multiple microrobots simultaneously in the same space to operate toward a common goal in a distributed operation. A locomotion strategy that can simultaneously guide the formation and operation of multiple robots in response to a common acoustic stimulus is developed. The scaffold-free cellu-robots comprise only highly packed cells and eliminate the influence of supportive materials, making them less cumbersome during locomotion. The ring shape of the cellu-robot contributes to anisotropic cellular interactions which induce radial cellular orientation. Under a single stimulus, several cellu-robots form predetermined complex structures such as bracelet-like ring-chains which transform into a single new living entity through cell–cell interactions, migration or cellular extensions between cellu-robots.     

Fish and robots swimming together: attraction towards the robot demands biomimetic locomotion

The integration of biomimetic robots in a fish school may enable a better understanding of collective behaviour, offering a new experimental method to test group feedback in response to behavioural modulations of its ‘engineered’ member. Here, we analyse a robotic fish and individual golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) swimming together in a water tunnel at different flow velocities. We determine the positional preference of fish with respect to the robot, and we study the flow structure using a digital particle image velocimetry system. We find that biomimetic locomotion is a determinant of fish preference as fish are more attracted towards the robot when its tail is beating rather than when it is statically immersed in the water as a ‘dummy’. At specific conditions, the fish hold station behind the robot, which may be due to the hydrodynamic advantage obtained by swimming in the robot''s wake. This work makes a compelling case for the need of biomimetic locomotion in promoting robot–animal interactions and it strengthens the hypothesis that biomimetic robots can be used to study and modulate collective animal behaviour.     

Biologically inspired adaptive walking of a quadruped robot

We describe here the efforts to induce a quadruped robot to walk with medium-walking speed on irregular terrain based on biological concepts. We propose the necessary conditions for stable dynamic walking on irregular terrain in general, and we design the mechanical and the neural systems by comparing biological concepts with those necessary conditions described in physical terms. PD-controller at joints constructs the virtual spring-damper system as the viscoelasticity model of a muscle. The neural system model consists of a central pattern generator (CPG), reflexes and responses. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed neural system model control using the quadruped robots called 'Tekken1&2'. MPEG footage of experiments can be seen at http://www.kimura.is.uec.ac.jp.     

The integration of manipulation and vision for assembly and quality control

The recent, development of industrial robots has produced quite powerful and cost-effective manipulators. Some crucial operations, as managing parts with random orientation or realigning pieces, can now be solved with the aid of vision systems connected with the manipulator. Quality control can be partially done during the assembly itself.

The solutions we may adopt to integrate manipulation and vision can be various. If we want to make it easy to program the system as a whole, with the same programming language, we should study solutions in which manipulation and vision use high-level languages To this end we will discuss how the choice of the programming language for the application programs is crucial.

The hardware and software structures of an operational example of such a system are presented. Examples of programs are given     

基于废墟结构特征的灾后救援机器人设计研究

目的 针对地震灾后废墟结构特征进行调研和分析,提出一种能够在复杂废墟结构中高效工作的救援机器人设计方案。方法 首先通过对废墟的类型、结构特征、受力情况、内部空间等因素进行调研分析,提出对应的救援策略与废墟结构安全评估法则,总结现有设备在复杂废墟结构中存在的问题,以此构建灾后救援机器人创新设计要素;再通过TRIZ理论建立救援设备功能模型图并确定技术矛盾;最后结合阿奇舒勒矩阵得出数条发明原理,利用创新设计要素对其依次进行评估并筛选出需要利用的创新原理,以指导救援机器人创新设计。结论 针对灾后废墟结构特征进行研究分析,能够有效指导救援类产品进行创新设计,并为相关研究提供参考。