Abstract
Soft growing robots have recently attracted considerable interest. They are expected to operate in complicated environments leveraging their flexibility and adaptability. However, some of them are unable to maintain their bending shape without contact with an object, and some of their mechanisms are complex. In this article, we propose a novel heat welding mechanism for pitch-up motion without any support. The proposed robot uses a gusset folded tube and welds its gusset parts. The welded tube is bent, and the robot performs a pitch-up motion. In addition, we experimentally investigate the characteristics of welded bending tubes and develop a stiffness model and bending angle model. The results demonstrate that they depend on the tube diameter, weld shape, and inner pressure. We conducted experiments to evaluate the performance of the robot and confirmed that the maximum bending moment based on which the robot can maintain its bending shape increases under a higher inner pressure, and a large bending angle is obtained by continuous bending. Further, we confirmed that proposed models can adequately simulate the pitch-up motion of the robot. The proposed mechanism enables the robot to perform novel pitch-up motion and expands the application of growing robots.
Highlights
Soft robotics has recently become one of the most active research fields in robotics
We propose a novel pitch bending mechanism, such that the robot may grow by lifting its head without support; we explain the characteristics of this motion
The results of the continuous bending experiment suggest that continuous bending enables the robot to achieve pitch-up motion with a large bending angle
Summary
Soft robotics has recently become one of the most active research fields in robotics. Soft robots have advantages over conventional rigid robots in terms of safe contact and high adaptability in assuming various shapes according to the objects. The research scope has expanded to include soft mobile robots in recent years [7]–[11]; soft growing robots are useful for exploration in environments where manual accessibility is difficult. These robots can move by adapting to Manuscript received October 11, 2021; Revised January 16, 2022; Accepted February 8, 2022.
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