Real-time proprioception is a challenging problem for soft robots, which have almost infinite degrees-of-freedom in body deformation. When multiple actuators are used, it becomes more difficult as deformation can also occur on actuators caused by interaction between each other. To tackle this problem, we present a method in this paper to sense and reconstruct 3D deformation on pneumatic soft robots by first integrating multiple low-cost sensors inside the chambers of pneumatic actuators and then using machine learning to convert the captured signals into shape parameters of soft robots. An exterior motion capture system is employed to generate the datasets for both training and testing. With the help of good shape parameterization, the 3D shape of a soft robot can be accurately reconstructed from signals obtained from multiple sensors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach on two designs of soft robots -- a robotic joint and a deformable membrane. After parameterizing the deformation of these soft robots into compact shape parameters, we can effectively train the neural networks to reconstruct the 3D deformation from the sensor signals. The sensing and shape prediction pipeline can run at 50Hz in real-time on a consumer-level device.
University College London（伦敦大学学院）；Welcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences（惠康/工程与物理科学研究委员会介入与外科科学中心）
In robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy, surgeons remove a part of a kidney often due to the presence of a mass. A drop-in ultrasound probe paired to a surgical robot is deployed to execute multiple swipes over the kidney surface to localise the mass and define the margins of resection. This sub-task is challenging and must be performed by a highly skilled surgeon. Automating this sub-task may reduce cognitive load for the surgeon and improve patient outcomes. The overall goal of this work is to autonomously move the ultrasound probe on the surface of the kidney taking advantage of the use of …
This paper discusses and contests the claims of ``Soft Pneumatic Actuator Fascicles for High Force and Reliability'' a research article which was originally published in the March 2017 issue of the Journal Soft Robotics. The original paper claims that the summed forces of multiple thin-walled extending McKibben muscles are greater than a volumetrically equivalent actuator of the same length at the same pressure. The original paper also claims that the purported benefit becomes more pronounced as the number of smaller actuators is increased. Using reasonable assumptions, the analysis of this pa…
Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford（牛津大学牛津机器人研究所）
Although research studies in pneumatic soft robots develop rapidly, most pneumatic actuators are still controlled by rigid valves and conventional electronics. The existence of these rigid, electronic components sacrifices the compliance and adaptability of soft robots.} Current electronics-free valve designs based on soft materials are facing challenges in behaviour consistency, design flexibility, and fabrication complexity. Taking advantages of soft material 3D printing, this paper presents a new design of a bi-stable pneumatic valve, which utilises two soft, pneumatically-driven, and symme…
University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学）；Harvard University（哈佛大学）；Worcester Polytechnic Institute（伍斯特理工学院）；Eastern Virginia Medical School（东弗吉尼亚医学院）
Developing soft circuits from individual soft logic gates poses a unique challenge: with increasing numbers of logic gates, the design and implementation of circuits leads to inefficiencies due to mathematically unoptimized circuits and wiring mistakes during assembly. It is therefore practically important to introduce design tools that support the development of soft circuits. We developed a web-based graphical user interface, the Soft Compiler, that accepts a user-defined robot behavior as a truth table to generate a mathematically optimized circuit diagram that guides the assembly of a soft…
Design, Manufacturing and Open-Loop Control of a Soft Pneumatic Arm
Centro de Automática y Robótica (UPM-CSIC), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid — Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas（自动化与机器人中心（UPM-CSIC），马德里理工大学——西班牙国家研究委员会）
The vision of creating entirely-soft robots capable of performing complex tasks will be accomplished only when the controllers required for autonomous operation can be fully implemented on soft components. Despite recent advances in compliant fluidic circuitry for mechanical signal processing, the applicability of this technology for soft robot control has been limited by complicated fabrication and tuning processes, and also the need for external signals such as clocks and digital references. We propose a method to develop pneumatic soft robots in which coordinated interactions between multip…
A High-frequency, Interaction-induced Pneumatic Oscillator Enabling Versatile Soft Robotics
Beijing University of Chemical Technology（北京化工大学）；Ritsumeikan University（立命馆大学）；University of Bristol（布里斯托大学）；The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)（香港科技大学（广州））；Tsinghua University（清华大学）
Soft pneumatic actuators have seen applications in many soft robotic systems, and their pressure-driven nature presents unique challenges and opportunities for controlling their motion. In this work, we present a new concept: designing and controlling pneumatic actuators via end geometry. We demonstrate a novel actuator class, named the folded Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (foldPAM), which features a thin-filmed air pouch that is symmetrically folded on each side. Varying the folded portion of the actuator changes the end constraints and, hence, the force-strain relationships. We investigated th…
This paper presents a compact system, OpenPneu, to support the pneumatic actuation for multi-chambers on soft robots. Micro-pumps are employed in the system to generate airflow and therefore no extra input as compressed air is needed. Our system conducts modular design to provide good scalability, which has been demonstrated on a prototype with ten air channels. Each air channel of OpenPneu is equipped with both the inflation and the deflation functions to provide a full range pressure supply from positive to negative with a maximal flow rate at 1.7 L/min. High precision closed-loop control of…
Reconfigurable, Transformable Soft Pneumatic Actuator with Tunable 3D Deformations for Dexterous Soft Robotics Applications
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)（香港科技大学）；HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute（香港科技大学深圳-香港协同创新研究院）
SPADA: A Toolbox of Designing Soft Pneumatic Actuators for Shape Matching based on Surrogate Modeling
Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford（牛津大学牛津机器人研究所）；Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford（牛津大学生物医学工程研究所）；University of Genoa（热那亚大学）
Beihang University（北京航空航天大学）；National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids（国家康复辅具研究中心）
Stiffness variation and real-time position feedback are critical for any robotic system but most importantly for active and wearable devices to interact with the user and environment. Currently, for compact sizes, there is a lack of solutions bringing high-fidelity feedback and maintaining design and functional integrity. In this work, we propose a novel minimal clutch with integrated stiffness variation and real-time position feedback whose performance surpasses conventional jamming solutions. We introduce integrated design, modeling, and verification of the clutch in detail. Preliminary expe…
Rotational Multi-material 3D Printing of Soft Robotic Matter with Asymmetrical Embedded Pneumatics
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University（哈佛大学约翰·A·保尔森工程与应用科学学院）；Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University（斯坦福大学机械工程系）；Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University（哈佛大学威斯生物启发工程研究所）
Modeling and Control of a Pneumatic Soft Robotic Catheter Using Neural Koopman Operators
Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics（计算感知与机器人实验室）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰霍普金斯大学）；Department of Mechanical Engineering（机械工程系）；University of Maryland（马里兰大学）
This paper presents a novel soft robotic system for a deformable mannequin that can be employed to physically realize the 3D geometry of different human bodies. The soft membrane on a mannequin is deformed by inflating several curved chambers using pneumatic actuation. Controlling the freeform surface of a soft membrane by adjusting the pneumatic actuation in different chambers is challenging as the membrane's shape is commonly determined by the interaction between all chambers. Using vision feedback provided by a structured-light based 3D scanner, we developed an efficient algorithm to comput…
National University of Singapore (NUS)（新加坡国立大学）；Advanced Robotics Center (ARC) at NUS（新加坡国立大学先进机器人中心）
The shoulder is responsible for the movement of the entire upper limb. It is capable of articulating in three degrees-of-freedom (DOF), enabling the arm to perform manipulation actions with incomparable dexterity. Exoskeletons targeting the shoulder must be able to emulate its complex kinematics. While typical architectures have proven to be useful, they employ complex and usually inadequate techniques to match the mobility of the shoulder. A new 2-DOF soft robotic shoulder exoskeleton is presented. Modular soft robotic actuators with separated inflation modules on the exoskeleton are able to …
Bilayer bending based soft actuators are widely utilized in soft robotics for locomotion and object gripping. However, studies on soft actuators based on bilayer doming remain largely unexplored despite the often-observed dome-like shapes in undersea animals such as jellyfish and octopus suction cup. Here, based on the simplified model of bending-induced doming of circular bilayer plates with mismatched deformation, we explore the design of soft doming actuator upon pneumatic actuation and its implications in design of multifunctional soft machines. The bilayer actuator is composed of patterne…
Vision-based FDM Printing for Fabricating Airtight Soft Actuators
Department of Robotics Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute（机器人工程系，沃斯特理工学院）；Department of Computer Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute（计算机科学系，沃斯特理工学院）；Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute（机械与材料工程系，沃斯特理工学院）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute（电气与计算机工程系，沃斯特理工学院）
Hybrid Rigid-Soft Robotic Gripper with Shape Adaptation, Uniform Force Distribution, and Self-Locking Capabilities
Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences（北京市农林科学院智能装备研究中心）；College of Engineering, China Agricultural University（中国农业大学工学院）；College of Engineering, Shanxi Agricultural University（山西农业大学工学院）
Soft Robotic Exogloves for Dexterous Mobility -- Towards Personalized Rehabilitation
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology（机械工程系，史蒂文斯理工学院）；Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology（机械工程学院，史蒂文斯理工学院）
Visuotactile Sensor Enabled Pneumatic Device Towards Compliant Oropharyngeal Swab Sampling
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School（清华大学深圳国际研究生院）；Seoul National University（首尔国立大学）；Qianyuan Institute of Science（乾元科学研究院）；The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学附属第七医院）；Ryerson University（瑞尔森大学）
Purdue University（普渡大学）；Stanford University（斯坦福大学）；University of California, Santa Barbara（加利福尼亚大学圣巴巴拉分校）
Continuum and soft robots can leverage complex actuator shapes to take on useful shapes while actuating only a few of their many degrees of freedom. Continuum robots that also grow increase the range of potential shapes that can be actuated and enable easier access to constrained environments. Existing models for describing the complex kinematics involved in general actuation of continuum robots rely on simulation or well-behaved stress-strain relationships, but the non-linear behavior of the thin-walled inflated-beams used in growing robots makes these techniques difficult to apply. Here we d…
