Abstract
Current research into soft robots not only needs to improve their compliance, but also requires consideration of the real-time controllability of rigidity and flexibility. By combining the advantages of Pneu-Net structure and the driven jamming mechanism, we developed a soft actuator model for a soft robot with real-time variable stiffness. Firstly, the model of the soft actuator coupled with pneumatic structure and jamming mechanism was built. Secondly, we analyzed the pneumatically-driven structure by using the finite element method and researched the influences of pressure in cavities as well as shape and size of cavities on the performance of bending motion. On this basis, the pneumatically-driven structure was optimized. Finally, a prototype of the soft robot arm with variable stiffness was designed to carry out the experiment for verifying the variable stiffness of the soft actuator. Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the soft robot can withstand a variable stiffness of between 0.025-0.138N/mm. In addition, the maximum elongation of the designed coupling mechanism can reach 25mm.
Highlights
When interacting with the natural environment, traditional rigid robots are not compliant enough and have limited adaptability to the environment, which greatly limits their range of application
Allen proposed a bending test platform, with one end of an actuator fixed horizontally and the other in contact with a sensor mounted on a linear slide track and deduced variable stiffness value by comparing sensor reading with displacement of the sliding block, the above two platforms neglect the influences of gravity on such robots, so they are only suitable for the mechanisms with small self-weight [21]
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 covers the structural model of the soft robot with variable stiffness; the pneumatically-driven structure is analysed by using the finite element method in Section 3; the prototype of the robot is described in Section 4; in Section 5 we describe the design of the test platform for stiffness and completed the experiment for verifying stiffness under pneumatic drive conditions
Summary
When interacting with the natural environment, traditional rigid robots are not compliant enough and have limited adaptability to the environment, which greatly limits their range of application. Allen proposed a bending test platform, with one end of an actuator fixed horizontally and the other in contact with a sensor mounted on a linear slide track and deduced variable stiffness value by comparing sensor reading with displacement of the sliding block, the above two platforms neglect the influences of gravity on such robots, so they are only suitable for the mechanisms with small self-weight [21]. The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 covers the structural model of the soft robot with variable stiffness; the pneumatically-driven structure is analysed by using the finite element method in Section 3; the prototype of the robot is described in Section 4; in Section 5 we describe the design of the test platform for. Stiffness and completed the experiment for verifying stiffness under pneumatic drive conditions
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