Abstract
Replicating the behavior and movement of living organisms to develop robots which are better adapted to the human natural environment is a major area of interest today. Soft device development is one of the most promising and innovative technological fields to meet this challenge. However, soft technology lacks of suitable actuators, and therefore, development and integration of soft actuators is a priority. This article presents the development and control of a soft robotic neck which is actuated by a flexible Shape Memory Alloy (SMA)-based actuator. The proposed neck has two degrees of freedom that allow movements of inclination and orientation, thus approaching the actual movement of the human neck. The platform we have developed may be considered a real soft robotic device since, due to its flexible SMA-based actuator, it has much fewer rigid parts compared to similar platforms. Weight and motion noise have also been considerably reduced due to the lack of gear boxes, housing and bearings, which are commonly used in conventional actuators to reduce velocity and increase torque.
Highlights
S OFT robotic applications offer certain advantages compared to robots with rigid elements: they are more adaptable and accessible to complex environments, they present under-actuated architectures, and they are safer when they interact with the environment
A type of bilinear controller consisting of a conventional Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller, in cascade with a bilinear compensator, known as Bilinear Proportional Integral Derivative (BPID) controller, was proposed to control the soft robotic neck
In this paper we introduced a soft robotic neck actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators, which, compared to existing robotic necks actuated by conventional motors has the advantage of low weight, noiseless operation and low-cost development
Summary
S OFT robotic applications offer certain advantages compared to robots with rigid elements: they are more adaptable and accessible to complex environments, they present under-actuated architectures, and they are safer when they interact with the environment. This second category with yaw, roll and pitch movements, are included in humanoids: Kenta [18], Kenshiro [19], Kengoro [20], Kotaro [21], LARMbot [22] This category includes a flexible humanoid spine structure [23], [24], [25], usually based on tendon driven or muscle-skeletal systems of actuation. Most of these applications use a DC motor actuation system, which increases the weight of the final device.
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