Abstract
Soft robotics is a new and exciting field of robotics which heavily relies on compliant materials. Soft robots attempt to copy the motion of living organisms and their adaptation mechanisms to the environment. New efforts in this field have paved way for the use of specific materials, e.g. electroactive polymers and/or magnetoactive (magnetorheological) MR elastomers. In this paper the author discusses the fundamental characteristics of MR fluids and elastomers, that allow them to be used as elements/components of soft robots. The advantages of using soft robots and the scope of applications for such robots are presented. The advantages and disadvantages of using MR fluids and elastomers in such soft robots are also considered. The history of the development of the idea of using MR fluids and elastomers in soft robots is presented, too. Possible applications for soft robots based on MR fluids and elastomers are considered. Various solutions for constructing a robotic gripper using MR fluids and elastomers are presented. Based on the above solutions, an analysis is made of the development of such technologies and the main problems are identified that will be the goal of solving them in the near future.
Highlights
Soft robotics is a field of robotics that relies on copying the movement of living organisms and the mechanisms of their adaptation to the environment and largely depends on compatible materials [1,2]
During the manufacture of the anisotropic MR elastomer at a certain period of time, the material is exposed to magnetic fields, as a result of which the magnetically active parts are aligned in chains along the magnetic field, which greatly affects the characteristics of the final product
Despite the fact that an increase in some useful characteristics can lead to a decrease in others, the correct selection of the characteristics of the MR material for a specific task can fully reveal its potential
Summary
Soft robotics is a field of robotics that relies on copying the movement of living organisms and the mechanisms of their adaptation to the environment and largely depends on compatible materials [1,2]. With the increase in the number of new technical solutions, the emergence of new materials and new urgent tasks, soft robots are finding even larger areas of application. Various approaches are used to build soft robots, such as shape memory alloys (SMAs) [3], pneumatic muscles [4,5], dielectric elastomers [6], magnetorheological (MR) materials [7], etc. Each of these approaches has its own advantages and disadvantages and its potential application scope. Depending on the composition used, the characteristics of the obtained MR materials may differ, which allows them to perform various functions in soft robots
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