Proposal for "Ajisai": a Soft Robotics Structure that Expresses Force and Deformation in Color ∼Visualization of the Grasping State of a Robot Hand ∼

Abstract

When a machine or robot is operating under positional control, it is difficult to visually confirm the reaction of the robot to the force applied to an object or the stiffness or mass of the object to be interacted with, based on visual changes in the robot's appearance. When a human and a robot cooperate or work in the same space, the interaction will be smoother and safer if we can visually understand the robot's state. In addition, soft robot technology that can flexibly adapt to people and various external environments is currently being researched. In this study, we aim to develop a technology that can communicate the status of the soft robot that can deform based on the target object by explicitly changing its appearance. We specifically attempt to visualize the internal stress of the soft robot by amplifying the color change caused by the photoelastic effect using origami and kirigami structures. In addition, as a feasibility study, we developed a soft robot hand that visually expresses the mass and stiffness of the object to be grasped．