Euglenoid-Inspired Giant Shape Change for Highly Deformable Soft Robots
Euglenoid-Inspired Giant Shape Change for Highly Deformable Soft Robots
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DOI：
10.1109/lra.2017.2726113
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发表时间：
2017-10-01
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Rossiter, Jonathan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Digumarti, Krishna Manaswi;Conn, Andrew T.;Rossiter, Jonathan
大自然已经以许多不同的形式利用了柔软性和顺应性，从大型头足类动物到微生物细菌和藻类。在所有这些情况下，大的身体变形用于对象操纵和运动。软机器人的巨大潜力在于以可控的机器人形式捕捉和复制这些能力。这封信提出了一种生物激励致动器的设计，能够实现大的体积变化。受到Euglena Eutreptiella spirogyra在其特征运动过程中所见的身体形状变化的启发，设计了一种新型的软气动致动器，该致动器利用弹性体的超弹性特性。我们称之为超弹性波纹管（HEB）致动器。结果是在正压和负压下工作以实现裸藻样多模态致动的结构。观察到450%的轴向膨胀和80%的径向膨胀，沿着体积变化300倍。此外，分段机器人的设计与多个腔室，演示了几个特征形状所采用的眼虫在其运动周期。这封信显示了这种新的软驱动机制的潜力，实现仿生软机器人与巨大的形状变化。
Nature has exploited softness and compliance in many different forms, from large cephalopods to microbial bacteria and algae. In all these cases, large body deformations are used for both object manipulation and locomotion. The great potential of soft robotics is to capture and replicate these capabilities in controllable robotic form. This letter presents the design of a bioinspired actuator capable of achieving a large volumetric change. Inspired by the changes in body shape seen in the euglena Eutreptiella spirogyra during its characteristic locomotion, a novel soft pneumatic actuator has been designed that exploits the hyperelastic properties of elastomers. We call this the hyperelastic bellows (HEB) actuator. The result is a structure that works under both positive and negative pressure to achieve euglenoid-like multimodal actuation. Axial expansion of 450% and a radial expansion of 80% have been observed, along with a volumetric change of 300 times. Furthermore, the design of a segmented robot with multiple chambers is presented, which demonstrates several of the characteristic shapes adopted by the euglenoid in its locomotion cycle. This letter shows the potential of this new soft actuation mechanism to realise biomimetic soft robotics with giant shape changes.