Abstract
Soft robots are ideal for underwater manipulation in sampling and other servicing applications. Their unique features of compliance, adaptability, and being naturally waterproof enable robotic designs to be compact and lightweight, while achieving uncompromized dexterity and flexibility. However, the inherent flexibility and high nonlinearity of soft materials also results in combined complex motions, which creates both soft actuator and sensor challenges for force output, modeling, and sensory feedback, especially under highly dynamic underwater environments. To tackle these limitations, a novel Soft Origami Optical-Sensing Actuator (SOSA) with actuation and sensing integration is proposed in this paper. Inspired by origami art, the proposed sensorized actuator enables a large force output, contraction/elongation/passive bending actuation by fluid, and hybrid motion sensing with optical waveguides. The SOSA design brings two major novelties over current designs. First, it involves a new actuation-sensing mode which enables a superior large payload output and a robust and accurate sensing performance by introducing the origami design, significantly facilitating the integration of sensing and actuating technology for wider applications. Secondly, it simplifies the fabrication process for harsh environment application by investigating the boundary features between optical waveguides and ambient water, meaning the external cladding layer of traditional sensors is unnecessary. With these merits, the proposed actuator could be applied to harsh environments for complex interaction/operation tasks. To showcase the performance of the proposed SOSA actuator, a hybrid underwater 3-DOFs manipulator has been developed. The entire workflow on concept design, fabrication, modeling, experimental validation, and application are presented in detail as reference for wider effective robot-environment applications.
Highlights
Fast-growing interest in effective robot-environment interactions stimulated global investigations on soft robotics
To further facilitate the high performance of soft robots, including a more integrative actuating-sensing module, larger output force, and more reliable sensory feedback, the scope of this study mainly focuses on exploring the actuation and sensing on a soft actuator level and soft sensor level
A novel soft origami optical-sensing actuator was proposed in this paper, with concept design, fabrication, modeling, and application presented in detail
Summary
Fast-growing interest in effective robot-environment interactions stimulated global investigations on soft robotics. The main contributions of the paper include: 1) a novel design of an actuating-sensing integrated actuator with large force output and sensing accuracy inspired by origami which enables a superior large payload output and robust and accurate sensing performance by introducing the origami design, significantly facilitating the integration of sensing and actuating technology for wider applications; 2) simplifying the fabrication process for harsh environment applications by investigating the boundary features between optical waveguides and ambient water to remove the external cladding layer of traditional sensors; and 3) proposing a new hybrid underwater manipulator with redundant position feedback for accuracy and dexterous underwater applications. To address the main contributions on actuator performance and fabrication, two challenges are raised: exploring a sensorized actuator design, which could offer a superior large payload output and robust and accurate sensing performance; and finding an easy and low-cost fabrication method for application in harsh environments, i.e., underwater manipulation. The fabrication process of the optical waveguide can be simplified
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