EFRI C3 SoRo: Soft, Strong, and Safe Configurable Robots for Diverse Manipulation Tasks

EFRI C3 SoRo：柔软、坚固且安全的可配置机器人，适用于各种操作任务

• 批准号: 1830901
• 负责人: Daniela Rus
• 金额: $ 200万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1830901&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EFRI; C3; SoRo; Soft; Strong

This project seeks to extend our understanding of the principles underlying the design and control of effective soft robots. Soft robots and muscle-like soft actuators coupled with agile control strategies will enable new manipulation and locomotion capabilities currently only found in nature, and allow robots and humans to safely collaborate. Today's industrial manipulators enable rapid and precise assembly, but these robots are physically isolated, to ensure the safety of any humans nearby. In contrast, the bodies of soft robots are made of intrinsically soft and/or extensible materials, such as silicone rubbers or fabrics, and are therefore safe for interaction with humans and animals. Soft robots have a continuously deformable structure with muscle-like actuation that emulates key features of biological systems and provides them with a relatively large number of degrees of freedom as compared to their hard-bodied counterparts. Soft robots have capabilities beyond what is possible with today's rigid-bodied robots. For example, soft-bodied robots can move in more natural ways that include complex bending and twisting curvatures that are not restricted to the traditional rigid body kinematics of existing robotic manipulators. Their bodies can deform in a continuous way, providing theoretically infinite degrees of freedom and allowing them to adapt their shape to their task, for example, conforming to natural terrain or forming enveloping grasps. Soft robots have also been shown to be capable of rapid agile maneuvers and can change their stiffness to achieve a task- or environment-specific impedance. Current research on device-level and algorithmic aspects of soft robots has resulted in a range of novel soft devices. This project will derive a systematic mathematical framework to model and control soft robots and will use the resulting algorithms to perform manipulation tasks with a wide variety of delicacy and strength requirements. The results will have potential uses in manufacturing, warehouse and supply chain automation, and everyday home activities such as cooking and cleaning. These soft, strong, and safe robots will have potential application in assisted care for the elderly or disabled, and for physical therapy. This project uses the unique features of soft robots to continue the Principal Investigators' track record of outreach and educational activities that excite young students about STEM careers.In the recent past, the soft robotics community has explored many different component hardware technologies, however fundamental algorithmic obstacles to their practical use remain challenging. Currently there is an artificial divide between control strategies for rigid and soft robots; rigid robots use high-bandwidth control of contact forces and contact geometry, while soft robots rely almost entirely on open-loop interactions, mediated by material properties, to govern the resulting forces and configurations. This project will bridge this gap by developing optimization-based control for soft robots, via approximate dynamic models of the soft interface, based on representations with a fidelity customized to the task. The proposed class of soft, strong, and safe robots will be designed, fabricated, and controlled by co-developing muscle-like actuation along with internal and contact models and associated planning and control strategies. An innovative new artificial muscle design allows customization of actuators to specific tasks, through systematic modular design. The modeling effort will focus on contact-rich behaviors of the soft robot with the environment, both for delicate touch and manipulation, and for high-force power grasps. Such a combination of soft and strong has not been fully addressed in the soft robotics community and will allow soft robots to interact safely and effectively with people in unprecedented applications.This project is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) and the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在扩展我们对有效软机器人设计和控制的基本原理的理解。软机器人和类似肌肉的软致动器与敏捷控制策略相结合，将实现目前仅在自然界中发现的新的操纵和运动能力，并允许机器人和人类安全地合作。今天的工业机械手可以实现快速精确的装配，但这些机器人是物理隔离的，以确保附近任何人的安全。相比之下，软机器人的主体由本质上柔软和/或可伸展的材料制成，例如硅橡胶或织物，因此对于与人类和动物的交互是安全的。软机器人具有连续可变形的结构，具有类似肌肉的致动，其模仿生物系统的关键特征，并与其硬身体对应物相比为它们提供相对较大的自由度。软机器人具有超越今天的刚体机器人的能力。例如，软体机器人可以以更自然的方式移动，包括复杂的弯曲和扭曲曲率，而不限于现有机器人操纵器的传统刚体运动学。它们的身体可以连续变形，提供理论上无限的自由度，并允许它们根据任务调整形状，例如，符合自然地形或形成包围抓地力。软机器人也被证明能够快速敏捷的机动，并可以改变其刚度，以实现特定的任务或环境阻抗。目前对软机器人的设备级和算法方面的研究已经产生了一系列新颖的软设备。该项目将导出一个系统的数学框架来建模和控制软机器人，并将使用由此产生的算法来执行具有各种各样的灵敏度和强度要求的操作任务。研究结果将在制造、仓库和供应链自动化以及烹饪和清洁等日常家庭活动中具有潜在用途。这些柔软，坚固，安全的机器人将在老年人或残疾人的辅助护理以及物理治疗方面具有潜在的应用。该项目利用软机器人的独特功能，延续了首席研究员的推广和教育活动记录，激发了年轻学生对STEM职业的兴趣。在最近的过去，软机器人社区已经探索了许多不同的组件硬件技术，但其实际应用的基本算法障碍仍然具有挑战性。目前，刚性机器人和柔性机器人的控制策略之间存在人为的划分;刚性机器人使用接触力和接触几何形状的高带宽控制，而柔性机器人几乎完全依赖于开环相互作用，由材料特性介导，以控制所产生的力和配置。该项目将通过开发基于优化的软机器人控制来弥合这一差距，通过软界面的近似动态模型，基于具有定制任务保真度的表示。所提出的软，强，安全的机器人类将设计，制造和控制的共同发展肌肉样驱动沿着与内部和接触模型和相关的规划和控制策略。创新的新型人工肌肉设计允许通过系统的模块化设计来定制执行特定任务的执行器。建模工作将集中在软机器人与环境的接触丰富的行为，无论是微妙的触摸和操纵，以及高力量的权力掌握。这样的软硬结合在软机器人界还没有得到充分的解决，将让软机器人在前所未有的应用中安全有效地与人互动，这个项目由美国国家科学基金会联合发起，新兴前沿和多学科活动办公室（EFMA）和美国空军科学研究办公室（AFOSR）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Model-based dynamic feedback control of a planar soft robot: trajectory tracking and interaction with the environment

• DOI: 10.1177/0278364919897292
• 发表时间: 2020-01-11
• 期刊: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS RESEARCH
• 影响因子: 9.2
• 作者: Della Santina, Cosimo;Katzschmann, Robert K.;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Simulation and Fabrication of Soft Robots with Embedded Skeletons

嵌入式骨架软体机器人的仿真与制造

• DOI: 10.1109/icra46639.2022.9811844
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
• 作者: Bern, James M.;Zargarbashi, Fatemeh;Zhang, Annan;Hughes, Josie;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Scaling Up Soft Robotics: A Meter-Scale, Modular, and Reconfigurable Soft Robotic System

• DOI: 10.1089/soro.2020.0123
• 发表时间: 2021-03-25
• 期刊: SOFT ROBOTICS
• 影响因子: 7.9
• 作者: Li, Shuguang;Awale, Samer A.;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Control Oriented Modeling of Soft Robots: The Polynomial Curvature Case

• DOI: 10.1109/lra.2019.2955936
• 发表时间: 2020-04-01
• 期刊: IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Della Santina, Cosimo;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Underwater Soft Robot Modeling and Control With Differentiable Simulation

• DOI: 10.1109/lra.2021.3070305
• 发表时间: 2021-07-01
• 期刊: IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Du, Tao;Hughes, Josie;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela