Abstract
The soft robotics community is currently wondering what the future of soft robotics is. Therefore, it is very important to identify the directions in which the community should focus its efforts to consolidate its impact. The identification of convincing applications is a priority, especially to demonstrate that some achievements already represent an attractive alternative to current technological approaches in specific scenarios. However, most of the added value of soft robotics has been only theoretically grasped. Embodied Intelligence, being of these theoretical principles, represents an interesting approach to fully exploit soft robotic’s potential, but a pragmatic application of this theory still remains difficult and very limited. A different design approach could be beneficial, i.e., the integration of a certain degree of continuous adaptability in the hardware functionalities of the robot, namely, a “flexible” design enabled by hardware components able to fulfill multiple functionalities. In this paper this concept of flexible design is introduced along with its main technological and theoretical basic elements. The potential of the approach is demonstrated through a biological comparison and the feasibility is supported by practical examples with state-of-the-art technologies.
Highlights
A widespread use of soft robotics technologies is highlighting the necessity of a different approach on the design of systems and sub-systems that can benefit from the properties of soft bodied parts to accomplish some specific
On one side, technological development of soft mechatronics components is progressing, increasing the exploitation of all the advantages rising from intrinsic softness and compliance
Soft robotics has undoubtedly produced a series of new concepts and technologies that is vastly expanding the potential impact of robotics in our society
Summary
A widespread use of soft robotics technologies is highlighting the necessity of a different approach on the design of systems and sub-systems that can benefit from the properties of soft bodied parts to accomplish some specific. A step forward may be represented by a different design approach: not to formally describe and follow design rules to implement EI principles a priori, but rather to embed basic elements and tools with a “flexible” design approach (introduced in Embodied Intelligence by Flexible Design), and let the system evolve and adapt its body functionalities to exploit EI principles through the direct interaction with the environment This evolution and adaptation of body functionalities may not necessarily imply a hardware change, since soft mechatronic technologies demonstrated the possibility to fulfil multiple functionalities, depending on their driving conditions (details and examples are reported in Hardware Multifunctionality). Use the tubes (potential disadvantage) in helicoidal shape, designed in a way that they do not introduce a stiffness increase or may be even used as alternative to other spring elements (usable advantage) They may cover the role of structural material for the soft robot body (Figure 1B). Such a robot could be re-trained (physically!) with no or very limited hardware modifications to accomplish a completely new task
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