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Tensegrity Robotics Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Dylan S. Shah, Joran W. Booth, Robert L. Baines, Kun Wang, Massimo Vespignani, Kostas Bekris, Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio
Numerous recent advances in robotics have been inspired by the biological principle of tensile integrity—or “tensegrity”—to achieve remarkable feats of dexterity and resilience. Tensegrity robots contain compliant networks of rigid struts and soft cables, allowing them to change their shape by adjusting their internal tension. Local rigidity along the struts provides support to carry electronics and
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Pneumatically Controlled Reconfigurable Bistable Bionic Flower for Robotic Gripper Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Zheng Zhang, Xiangqi Ni, Weiliang Gao, Hongcheng Shen, Min Sun, Guodong Guo, Huaping Wu, Shaofei Jiang
Beyond their colorful appearances and versatile geometries, flowers can self-shape-morph by adapting to environmental changes. Nature-inspired artificial systems that mimic their natural counterparts in function, flexibility, and adaptation find an emerging application in mobile robotics. In this study, a novel reconfigurable bionic flower made of petal-shaped bistable carbon fiber-reinforced composites
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A Hybrid Jamming Structure Combining Granules and a Chain Structure for Robotic Applications Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Wookeun Park, Dongman Lee, Joonbum Bae
To allow versatile manipulation of soft robots made of compliant materials with limited force transmission, variable stiffness has been actively developed, which has become one of the most important factors in soft robotics. Variable stiffness is usually achieved by a jamming mechanism using layers, granules, or chain structures, through vacuum pressure or cable-driven mechanism due to its simple and
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A Bioinspired Compliant 3D-Printed Soft Gripper Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Ali Zolfagharian, Saleh Gharaie, Jack Gregory, Mahdi Bodaghi, Akif Kaynak, Saeid Nahavandi
A compliant three-dimensional (3D)-printed soft gripper is designed based on the bioinspired spiral spring in this study. The soft gripper is then 3D-printed using a suitable thermoplastic filament material to deliver the desired performance. The sensorless mechanism introduced in this study provides adequate compliance with a single linear actuator for interacting with delicate objects, such as manipulation
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Visual Servoing Pushing Control of the Soft Robot with Active Pushing Force Regulation Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Fan Xu, Hesheng Wang, Zhe Liu, Weidong Chen, Yuxin Wang
Soft robots characterize operational safety due to inherent compliance from their soft mechanism, whereas their mechanism enhances the difficulty in accurate closed-loop control. To explore their applicability in manipulation tasks, in this article, we propose a visual servoing pushing controller considering the effect of contact. The controller is designed to simultaneously complete the positioning
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Tunable Soft Lens of Large Focal Length Change Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Yuzhe Wang, Pengcheng Li, Ujjaval Gupta, Jianyong Ouyang, Jian Zhu
Tunable lens technology inspired by the human eye has opened a new paradigm of smart optical devices for a variety of applications due to unique characteristics such as lightweight, low cost, and facile fabrication over conventional lens assemblies. The fast-growing demands for tunable optical lenses in consumer electronics, medical diagnostics, and optical communications require the lens to have a
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Deflected Versus Preshaped Soft Pneumatic Actuators: A Design and Performance Analysis Toward Reliable Soft Robots Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Eduardo Perez-Guagnelli, Dana D. Damian
Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are customizable and conformable devices that enable desired motions in soft robots. Interactions with the environment or handling during their fabrication could introduce defects into SPAs that affect their performance. These defects could lead to high-stress concentrations in the SPA body and heterogeneous, unrepeatable, or inconsistent expansion affecting their reliability
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A Novel Pressure-Controlled Revolute Joint with Variable Stiffness Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Canberk Sozer, Linda Paternò, Giuseppe Tortora, Arianna Menciassi
The compliance and deformability of soft robotics allow human–machine interactions in a safe manner without the need of sophisticated control systems inherent in rigid-body robotic devices. However, these advantages introduce controllability and predictability challenges. In this study, we propose a novel fluidic-driven variable stiffness revolute joint (VSRJ) based on hybrid soft-rigid approach to
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Bioinspired High-Degrees of Freedom Soft Robotic Glove for Restoring Versatile and Comfortable Manipulation Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Dong Hyun Kim, Yechan Lee, Hyung-Soon Park
The human hand is one of the most complex and compact grippers that has arisen as a product of natural genetic engineering; it is highly versatile, as it handles power and precision tasks. Since proper contact points and force directions are required to ensure versatility and secure a stable grip on an object, there must be a large workspace and controllable tip force directions for the digits. Although
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Multijointed Pneumatic Soft Hand with Flexible Thenar Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Tianze Hao, Huaping Xiao, Shuhai Liu, Chao Zhang, Hao Ma
Soft robotic hands provide better safety and adaptability than rigid robotic hands. Furthermore, a multijointed structure that imitates the movement of a human hand represents significant progress in realizing its anthropomorphism. In this study, we present a multijointed pneumatic soft anthropomorphic hand that is capable of expressing letters through sign language and grasping different objects using
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A Soft Robot for Peripheral Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Max McCandless, Alexander Perry, Nicholas DiFilippo, Ashlyn Carroll, Ehab Billatos, Sheila Russo
Lung cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancers and is often diagnosed by performing biopsies with the use of a bronchoscope. However, this diagnostic procedure is limited in ability to explore deep into the periphery of the lung where cancer can remain undetected. In this study, we present design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of a one degree of freedom soft robot with integrated diagnostic
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A Locally Actuatable Soft Robotic Film for Actively Reconfiguring Shapes of Flexible Electronics Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Hunpyo Ju, Hyeongoh Park, Namyun Kim, Jeonggeun Lim, Dongwuk Jung, Jongho Lee
Actively reconfigurable flexible electronics enabled by robotic technologies would provide opportunities to extensively broaden the application areas of flexible electronics compared with their passively flexible counterparts. Diverse reconfigurable shapes can be enabled by localized control of the film-type electronics while keeping a thin form factor for flexible electronics. The flexible electronics
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Static Modeling of Soft Reinforced Bending Actuator Considering External Force Constraints Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Mohammad Hadi Namdar Ghalati, Hamed Ghafarirad, Amir Abolfazl Suratgar, Mohammad Zareinejad, Mohammad Ali Ahmadi-Pajouh
Soft robots are utilized in various operations such as rehabilitation, manipulation, and locomotion. These robots are sometimes excited by means of rubber based bending actuators, which are highly nonlinear and hyperelastic. In addition, in contrast to robots with rigid links and common actuators, continuous deformation of soft bending actuators in the presence of external forces makes the modeling
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A Snake-Inspired Layer-Driven Continuum Robot Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Guodong Qin, Aihong Ji, Yong Cheng, Wenlong Zhao, Hongtao Pan, Shanshuang Shi, Yuntao Song
Continuum robots with redundant degrees of freedom and postactuated devices are suitable for application in aerospace, nuclear facilities, and other narrow and multiobstacle special environments. The development of a snake-inspired continuum robot is presented in this study. The morphological skeleton structure of the snake body is simulated using underactuated continuum joints, which include several
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Origami Spring-Inspired Shape Morphing for Flexible Robotics Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Qianying Chen, Fan Feng, Pengyu Lv, Huiling Duan
Flexible robotics are capable of achieving various functionalities by shape morphing, benefiting from their compliant bodies and reconfigurable structures. In this study, we construct and study a class of origami springs generalized from the known interleaved origami spring, as promising candidates for shape morphing in flexible robotics. These springs are found to exhibit nonlinear stretch-twist coupling
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A Biologically Inspired Ring-Shaped Soft Pneumatic Actuator for Large Deformations Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Ryman Hashem, Shahab Kazemi, Martin Stommel, Leo K. Cheng, Weiliang Xu
Biomimicry of the stomach's peristaltic contractions can be challenging in the design, modeling, and control of a soft actuator. The mimicking of organ contractions advances our knowledge of the digestive system and analyzes the biological behavior by testing with a physical robot. This article proposes a ring-shaped soft pneumatic actuator (RiSPA) as a segment of the digestive tract. RiSPA is made
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Twisting and Braiding Fluid-Driven Soft Artificial Muscle Fibers for Robotic Applications Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Phuoc Thien Phan, Trung Thien Hoang, Mai Thanh Thai, Harrison Low, Nigel Hamilton Lovell, Thanh Nho Do
Research on soft artificial muscles (SAMs) is rapidly growing, both in developing new actuation ideas and improving existing structures with multifunctionality. The human body has more than 600 muscles that drive organs and joints to achieve desired functions. Inspired by the human muscles, this article presents a new type of SAM fiber formed from twisting and braiding soft hydraulic filament artificial
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SpringWorm: A Soft Crawling Robot with a Large-Range Omnidirectional Deformable Rectangular Spring for Control Rod Drive Mechanism Inspection Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-08-09 Pengpeng Yang, Bo Huang, David McCoul, Donghu Xie, Mingchao Li, Jianwen Zhao
In this article, a cable-driven elastic backbone worm-like robot (named “SpringWorm”) of decimeter-level size is designed, which has high adaptability in crack inspection of the weld between reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and control rod drive mechanisms. The robot consists of a body that adopts a rectangular helix spring backbone driven by four cables and the flexible claws embedded with distributed
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A Wearable Textile-Embedded Dielectric Elastomer Actuator Haptic Display Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-07-18 Dae-Young Lee, Seung Hee Jeong, Andy J. Cohen, Daniel M. Vogt, Matthias Kollosche, Geoffrey Lansberry, Yiğit Mengüç, Ali Israr, David R. Clarke, Robert J. Wood
With advances in mobile computing and virtual/augmented reality technologies, communicating through touch using wearable haptic devices is poised to enrich and augment current information delivery channels that typically rely on sight and hearing. To realize a wearable haptic device capable of effective data communication, both ergonomics and haptic performance (i.e., array size, bandwidth, and perception
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A Method for 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping of Fieldable Untethered Soft Robots Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-07-14 Zach J. Patterson, Dinesh K. Patel, Sarah Bergbreiter, Lining Yao, Carmel Majidi
Because they are made of elastically deformable and compliant materials, soft robots can passively change shape and conform to their environment, providing potential advantages over traditional robotics approaches. However, existing manufacturing workflows are often labor intensive and limited in their ability to create highly integrated three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneous material systems. In this
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Versatile Adhesion-Based Gripping via an Unstructured Variable Stiffness Membrane Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-07-12 Aoyi Luo, Sumukh S. Pande, Kevin T. Turner
Reversible and variable dry adhesion is a promising approach for versatile robotic grasping. Variable stiffness materials with a modulus that can be tuned using an external stimulus offer a unique approach to realize dynamic control of adhesion. In this study, an unstructured shape memory polymer (SMP) membrane with variable stiffness is used to pick-and-place three-dimensional objects. The variable
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Topology and Morphology Design of Spherically Reconfigurable Homogeneous Modular Soft Robots Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-07-07 Caitlin Freeman, Michael Maynard, Vishesh Vikas
Imagine a swarm of terrestrial robots that can explore an environment, and, on completion of this task, reconfigure into a spherical ball and roll out. This dimensional change alters the dynamics of locomotion and can assist them in maneuvering variable terrains. The sphere-plane reconfiguration is equivalent to projecting a spherical shell onto a plane, an operation that is not possible without distortions
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Sigmoidal Auxiliary Tendon-Driven Mechanism Reinforcing Structural Stiffness of Hyper-Redundant Manipulator for Endoscopic Surgery Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-28 Hansoul Kim, Jae Min You, Minho Hwang, Ki-Uk Kyung, Dong-Soo Kwon
The overtube of an endoscopic surgery robot is fixed when performing tasks, unlike those of commercial endoscopes, and this overtube should have high structural stiffness after reaching the target lesion so that sufficient tension can be applied to the lesion tissue with the surgical tool and there are fewer changes in the field of view of the endoscopic camera from this reaction force. Various methods
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Hydraulic Detrusor for Artificial Bladder Active Voiding Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-27 Giada Casagrande, Michele Ibrahimi, Federica Semproni, Veronica Iacovacci, Arianna Menciassi
The gold standard treatment for bladder cancer is radical cystectomy that implies bladder removal coupled to urinary diversions. Despite the serious complications and the impossibility of controlled active voiding, bladder substitution with artificial systems is a challenge and cannot represent a real option, yet. In this article, we present hydraulic artificial detrusor prototypes to control and drive
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Control-Oriented Models for Hyperelastic Soft Robots Through Differential Geometry of Curves Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-23 Brandon Caasenbrood, Alexander Pogromsky, Henk Nijmeijer
The motion complexity and use of exotic materials in soft robotics call for accurate and computationally efficient models intended for control. To reduce the gap between material and control-oriented research, we build upon the existing piece-wise constant curvature framework by incorporating hyperelastic and viscoelastic material behavior. In this work, the continuum dynamics of the soft robot are
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Lattice-and-Plate Model: Mechanics Modeling of Physical Origami Robots Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-17 Hongying Zhang, Jamie Paik
Origami robots are characterized by their compact design, quasi-two-dimensional manufacturing process, and folding joint-based transmission kinematics. The physical requirements in terms of payload, range of motion, and embedding core robotic components have made it unrealistic to rely on conventional mathematical models for designing these new robots. Therefore, origami robots require a comprehensive
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Sensing, Actuating, and Interacting Through Passive Body Dynamics: A Framework for Soft Robotic Hand Design Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-16 Kieran Gilday, Josie Hughes, Fumiya Iida
Robotic hands have long strived to reach the performance of human hands. The physical complexity and extraordinary capabilities of the human hand, in terms of sensing, actuation, and cognitive abilities, make achieving this goal challenging. At the heart of the physical structure of the hand is its’ passive behaviors. Seen most clearly in soft robotic hands, these behaviors influence and affect the
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Out-of-Plane Soft Lithography for Soft Pneumatic Microactuator Arrays Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-15 Edoardo Milana, Benjamin Gorissen, Eline De Borre, Frederik Ceyssens, Dominiek Reynaerts, Michael De Volder
Elastic pneumatic actuators are fueling new devices and applications in soft robotics. Actuator miniaturization is critical to enable soft microsystems for applications in microfluidics and micromanipulation. This work proposes a fabrication technique to make out-of-plane bending microactuators entirely by soft lithography. The only bonding step required is to seal the embedded fluidic channels, assuring
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Finite-Time Contraction Control of a Ring-Shaped Soft Pneumatic Actuator Mimicking Gastric Pathologic Motility Conditions Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-15 Shahab Kazemi, Martin Stommel, Leo K. Cheng, Weiliang Xu
Soft gastric simulators are the latest gastric models designed to imitate gastrointestinal (GI) functions in actual physiological conditions. They are used in in vitro tests for examining the drug and food behaviors in the GI tract. As the main motility function of the GI tract, the peristalsis can be altered in some gastric disorders, for example, by being delayed or accelerated. To simulate the stomach
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3D Printed Acoustically Programmable Soft Microactuators Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-14 Murat Kaynak, Amit Dolev, Mahmut Selman Sakar
The concept of creating all-mechanical soft microrobotic systems has great potential to address outstanding challenges in biomedical applications, and introduce more sustainable and multifunctional products. To this end, magnetic fields and light have been extensively studied as potential energy sources. On the other hand, coupling the response of materials to pressure waves has been overlooked despite
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Armor-Based Stable Force Pneumatic Artificial Muscles for Steady Actuation Properties Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Jin-Gyu Lee, Hugo Rodrigue
In this article, a novel actuator called armor-based stable force pneumatic artificial muscle (AS-PAM) is presented. AS-PAM has a sealed chamber made of polygonal parts and film, which helps the actuator to be lightweight (∼100 g) and achieve a large contraction ratio (>60%). It has an armor and a constraint to guide its motion, which keeps its force output [6.25 N/(cm2·bar)] stable over its operating
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Anguilliform Swimming Performance of an Eel-Inspired Soft Robot Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Dinh Quang Nguyen, Van Anh Ho
In this article, we propose a soft eel robot design using soft pneumatic actuators that mimic eel muscles. Four pairs of soft actuators are used to construct the eel robot body. Pulse signals with suitable shifting phases are utilized to control delivery of compressed air to the actuators in sequence to create a sinusoidal wave from head to tail of the robot body. A model of hydrodynamic forces acting
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A Novel Biomimetic Compliant Structural Skin Based on Composite Materials for Biorobotics Applications Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Zhibin Song, Zhongru Fu, Donato Romano, Paolo Dario, Jian S. Dai
Biorobotics is increasingly attracting engineers worldwide, due to the high impact this field can have on the society. Biorobotics aims at imitating or taking inspiration from mechanisms and strategies evolved by animals, including their locomotion abilities in real scenarios, such as swimming, running, crawling, and flying. However, the development of skin-mimicking structures, allowing protection
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Static Modeling of the Fiber-Reinforced Soft Pneumatic Actuators Including Inner Compression: Bending in Free Space, Block Force, and Deflection upon Block Force Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Yi Sun, Hui Feng, Ian R. Manchester, Raye Chen Hua Yeow, Peng Qi
Fiber-reinforced soft pneumatic actuators (FR-SPAs) are among the most successful soft actuators in the soft robotics community considering their structural strength, motion range, and force output. Inspired by the pneumatic artificial muscle, the bending-type tubular SPAs have also been applied with fiber winding for body reinforcement and then utilized in many applications. Due to their superior
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Smart Skin: Vision-Based Soft Pressure Sensing System for In-Home Hand Rehabilitation Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Yuanfeng Han, Aadith Varadarajan, Taekyoung Kim, Gang Zheng, Kris Kitani, Aisling Kelliher, Thanassis Rikakis, Yong-Lae Park
We introduce a novel in-home hand rehabilitation system for monitoring hand motions and assessing grip forces of stroke patients. The overall system is composed of a sensing device and a computer vision system. The sensing device is a lightweight cylindrical object for easy grip and manipulation, which is covered by a passive sensing layer called “Smart Skin.” The Smart Skin is fabricated using soft
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Bioinspired, Shape-Morphing Scale Battery for Untethered Soft Robots Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Myoung-Ho Kim, Seunghoon Nam, Minsub Oh, Hoo-Jeong Lee, Bongkyun Jang, Seungmin Hyun
Geometrically multifunctional structures inspired by nature can address the challenges in the development of soft robotics. A bioinspired structure based on origami and kirigami can significantly enhance the stretchability and reliability of soft robots. This study proposes a novel structure with individual, overlapping units, similar to snake scales that can be used to construct shape-morphing batteries
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One-Shot 3D-Printed Multimaterial Soft Robotic Jamming Grippers Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Gerard David Howard, James Brett, Jack O'Connor, Jordan Letchford, Gary W. Delaney
Soft gripping provides the potential for high performance in challenging tasks through morphological computing; however, design explorations are limited by a combination of a difficulty in generating useful models and use of laborious fabrication techniques. We focus on a class of grippers based on granular jamming that are particularly difficult to model and introduce a “one shot” technique that exploits
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A Microfabricated Dual Slip-Pressure Sensor with Compliant Polymer-Liquid Metal Nanocomposite for Robotic Manipulation Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Dino Accoto, Alessandro Donadio, Sibo Yang, Ankit, Nripan Mathews
Conventional grippers fall behind their human counterparts as they do not have integrated sensing capabilities. Piezoresistive and capacitive sensors are popular choices because of their design and sensitivity, but they cannot measure pressure and slip simultaneously. It is imperative to measure slip and pressure concurrently. We demonstrate a dual slip-pressure sensor based on a thermal approach.
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Fully Soft Pressure Sensor Based on Bionic Spine–Pillar Structure for Robotics Motion Monitoring Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Jinlin Liu, Yanan Yang, Jie Peng, Haicheng Wang, Da Chen, Yijian Liu, Lina Yang, Huining Chen
Soft and stretchable sensors are essential to the development of electronic skin, especially their potential applications in health care and intelligent robots, which have increasingly attracted attentions. Herein, inspired by the epidermal tissue hierarchy, we propose a high-sensitivity fully soft capacitive pressure sensor with bionic spine–pillar microstructure. Benefiting from the combination of
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Bioinspired Soft Robotic Fingers with Sequential Motion Based on Tendon-Driven Mechanisms Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Yin Zhang, Wang Zhang, Jialong Yang, Wei Pu
The conformability is yet a challenge for most soft robotic grippers due to the continuous motion and deformation of these machines under external force. Herein, inspired by the movement mechanism of human fingers, we propose a novel tendon-driven soft robotic finger with a preprogrammed bending configuration and a human finger like sequential motion that can be obtained by matching the stiffness gradient
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Paper-Based Robotics with Stackable Pneumatic Actuators Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Xiyue Zou, Tongfen Liang, Michael Yang, Cora LoPresti, Smit Shukla, Meriem Akin, Brian T. Weil, Salman Hoque, Emily Gruber, Aaron D. Mazzeo
This work presents a unique approach to the design, fabrication, and characterization of paper-based origami robotic systems consisting of stackable pneumatic actuators. These paper-based actuators (PBAs) use materials with high elastic modulus-to-mass ratios, accordion-like structures, and direct coupling with pneumatic pressure for extension and bending. The study contributes to the scientific and
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Generative Design Procedure for Embedding Specified Planar Behavior in Modular Soft Pneumatic Actuators Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 David Rostin Ellis, Martin Philip Venter, Gerhard Venter
A modular actuator construction consisting of smaller articulating units in series was designed to construct soft pneumatic actuators. These units are constructed to have a preferential bending direction using Mold Star 15 and Smooth-Sil 950 silicone. By changing the orientation of each unit, a different deformed actuator shape can be achieved. A design tool was developed where a genetic algorithm
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V-Shape Pneumatic Torsional Actuator: A Building Block for Soft Grasper and Manipulator Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Xing Ye, Shidong Zhu, Xiang Qian, Min Zhang, Xiaohao Wang
Robotic joints are fundamental components in artificial graspers and manipulators, and they are designed to achieve high dexterity to carry out various tasks. Traditional robotic hands are often driven by rigid joints, such as tendons and electric motors, resulting in bulky and complex designs. Soft robotics, composed of flexible and compliant materials, offers promising solutions to mimic the human
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Flexible Manipulator with Low-Melting-Point Alloy Actuation and Variable Stiffness Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Haibo Wang, Zhiwei Chen, Siyang Zuo
Flexible manipulators offer significant advantages over traditional rigid manipulators in minimally invasive surgery, because they can flexibly navigate around obstacles and pass cramped or tortuous paths. However, due to the inherent low stiffness, the ability to control/obtain higher stiffness when required remains to be further explored. In this article, we propose a flexible manipulator that exploits
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Robust Multimodal Indirect Sensing for Soft Robots Via Neural Network-Aided Filter-Based Estimation Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Junn Yong Loo, Ze Yang Ding, Vishnu Monn Baskaran, Surya Girinatha Nurzaman, Chee Pin Tan
Sensory data are critical for soft robot perception. However, integrating sensors to soft robots remains challenging due to their inherent softness. An alternative approach is indirect sensing through an estimation scheme, which uses robot dynamics and available measurements to estimate variables that would have been measured by sensors. Nevertheless, developing an adequately effective estimation scheme
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Stiffness Preprogrammable Soft Bending Pneumatic Actuators for High-Efficient, Conformal Operation Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Xingxing Ke, Jiajun Jang, Zhiping Chai, Haochen Yong, Jiaqi Zhu, Han Chen, Chuan Fei Guo, Han Ding, Zhigang Wu
Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are extensively investigated due to their simple control strategies for producing sophisticated motions. However, the motions or operations of homogeneous SPAs show obvious limitations in some varying curvature interaction scenarios because of the profile mismatch of homogeneous SPAs and specific interacted objects. Herein, a stiffness preprogrammable soft pneumatic
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A Wide-Range Stiffness-Tunable Soft Actuator Inspired by Deep-Sea Glass Sponges Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-08 Jihong Yan, Peipei Shi, Zhidong Xu, Jie Zhao
Achieving both high compliance and stiffness is a key issue in stiffness-tunable soft robots. A wide-range variable-stiffness method keeping pure soft characteristic is proposed by bioinspired design of deep-sea glass sponges adopting thermoplastic starch. The stiffness-tunable mechanism is designed through force analysis and optimization of its bionic cellular structure. It is fabricated with load-weight
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Bioinspired Amphibious Origami Robot with Body Sensing for Multimodal Locomotion Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-06-07 Huixu Dong, Haitao Yang, Shuo Ding, Tong Li, Haoyong Yu
Animals have long captured the inspirations of researchers in robotics with their unrivaled capabilities of multimodal locomotion on land and in water, achieved by functionally versatile limbs. Conventional soft robots show infinite degrees-of-freedom (DOFs), making it hard to be actuated and conduct multiple movements especially for multimodal locomotion in different environments. An origami robot
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Optimal Design of Electrode Topology of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators Based on the Parameterized Level Set Method Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-05-31 Peng Zhang, Ziwen Yan, Kai Luo, Qiang Tian
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are widely used to drive soft machines, and optimal design is required in more advanced designs of soft robots. In this research article, a computational approach is originally proposed and validated for the topology optimization of electrodes of DEAs. The nonlinear finite elements of absolute nodal coordinate formulation are applied to model the dynamic electromechanical
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Design of a Novel Sensing Method for a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Actuator-Driven 2-Degrees of Freedom Parallel Joint Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-05-26 Babar Jamil, Hugo Rodrigue, Youngjin Choi
The development of soft actuators and robots has spurred interest in human-friendly robots and devices that can operate in proximity with living things. Researchers have used soft actuators to drive hybrid soft/rigid mechanical platforms with multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs) that are both compliant and produce precise motions. However, the addition of sensors on these systems for feedback control
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Intentional Blocking Based Photoelectric Soft Pressure Sensor with High Sensitivity and Stability Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-05-23 Zhengwei Li, Long Cheng, Zeyu Liu
Soft pressure sensors have recently attracted considerable attention because of their applications in human–machine interface, soft robotics, and prosthetics. However, there remain some challenges in achieving satisfactory performance (e.g., high sensitivity, wide sensing range, high stability) for soft pressure sensors. This article reports an intentional blocking based photoelectric pressure sensor
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Bioinspired Multimodal Multipose Hybrid Fingers for Wide-Range Force, Compliant, and Stable Grasping Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-05-17 Jiaqi Zhu, Zhiping Chai, Haochen Yong, Yi Xu, Chuanfei Guo, Han Ding, Zhigang Wu
The increasing demand for grasping diverse objects in unstructured environments poses severe challenges to the existing soft/rigid robotic fingers due to the issues in balancing force, compliance, and stability, and hence has given birth to several hybrid designs. These hybrid designs utilize the advantages of rigid and soft structures and show better performance, but they are still suffering from
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Single-Actuator Soft Robot for In-Pipe Crawling Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-05-11 Ying Lin, Yi-Xian Xu, Jia-Yang Juang
Pipe inspection and maintenance are necessary to prevent economic and casualty losses due to leakage of fluids from damaged pipes. In-pipe soft robots made of highly deformable materials have been proposed to meet the needs, yet most of those comprise multiple segments and require multiple actuators controlled independently, resulting in less compact structures and more demanding control schemes. In
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A Learning-Based Approach to Sensorize Soft Robots Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-05-04 Benjamin Wee Keong Ang, Chen-Hua Yeow
Soft actuators and their sensors have always been separate entities with two distinct roles. The omnidirectional compliance of soft robots thus means that multiple sensors have to be used to sense different modalities in the respective planes of motion. With the recent emergence of self-sensing actuators, the two roles have gradually converged to simplify sensing requirements. Self-sensing typically
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LM-Jelly: Liquid Metal Enabled Biomimetic Robotic Jellyfish Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-04-29 Jiao Ye, Yu-Chen Yao, Jian-Ye Gao, Sen Chen, Pan Zhang, Lei Sheng, Jing Liu
Jellyfish have attracted worldwide attention owing to their fantastic moving styles, which also inspired development in soft robotics to meet the demands of underwater surveillance. In this study, a soft robotic jellyfish integrated liquid metal coil, and magnetic field is proposed for the first time to mimic the soft rowing propulsion of oblate jellyfish. The soft robotic jellyfish is actuated by
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Toward the Development of Large-Scale Inflatable Robotic Arms Using Hot Air Welding Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-04-28 Namsoo Oh, Hugo Rodrigue
The manufacturing method of soft pneumatic robots affects their ability to maintain their impermeability when pressurized. Pressurizing them beyond their limits results in leaks or ruptures of the structure. Increasing their size simultaneously increases the tension forces within their structure and reduces their ability to withstand the pressures necessary for them to operate. This article introduces
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Artificial Whisker Sensor with Undulated Morphology and Self-Spread Piezoresistors for Diverse Flow Analyses Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-04-28 Gongchao Liu, Yonggang Jiang, Peng Wu, Zhiqiang Ma, Huawei Chen, Deyuan Zhang
Harbor seal whiskers possess an undulated surface morphology that can effectively modify the vortex street behind the whiskers and suppress vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs). In this study, we propose a novel piezoresistive flow sensor that mimics the function of seal whiskers. The sensor consists of a bionic whisker with an undulated morphology and integrated out-of-plane piezoresistors. The piezoresistors
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Neuron-Inspired Soft Robot Teams and Their Non-Contact Electric Signal Transmission Based on Electromagnetic Induction Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-04-27 Yamei Yue, Qi Wang, Zheng Ma, Zhenhua Wu, Xuan Zhang, Dong Li, Yusheng Shi, Bin Su
Transmission of electric signal among robots enables them to construct a team to behave beyond capabilities of the individuals. However, such a signal transmission is elusive so far for soft robots due to the employment of soft materials, rather than traditionally rigid electronic units. In this study, we demonstrate neuron-inspired soft robots (NISRs) with an electromagnetic induced signal transmission
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Electroactive Polymer-Based Soft Actuator with Integrated Functions of Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Motion and Perception Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-04-25 Ruiqian Wang, Chuang Zhang, Wenjun Tan, Jia Yang, Daojing Lin, Lianqing Liu
Soft actuators have received extensive attention in the fields of soft robotics, biomedicine, and intelligence systems owing to their advantages of pliancy, silence, and essential safety. However, most existing soft actuators have only single actuation elements and lack sensing. Therefore, it is difficult for them to perform complex motions with multiple degrees of freedom (multi-DOFs) and high precision
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A Soft and Bistable Gripper with Adjustable Energy Barrier for Fast Capture in Space Soft Robot. (IF 7.784) Pub Date : 2022-04-21 Yuhang Liu, Kai Luo, Shuai Wang, Xiaodong Song, Zhijuan Zhang, Qiang Tian, Haiyan Hu
Actuators for fast capture are essential in the tasks of space structure assembly and space debris disposal. To avoid damage and rebound caused by collision, the mechanical devices for capture or docking impose very strict restrictions on the collision speed. The gripper made of soft material can realize compliant grasping, but its actuating speed and driving mode should adapt to the scenarios of grasping