EFRI C3 SoRo: Model-Based Design and Control of Power-Dense Soft Hydraulic Robots for Demanding and Uncertain Environments

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This project will create improved methods of dynamic modeling for highly deformable structures. It will show how miniature hydraulic systems can be customized for power transmission in challenging soft robotic applications, and how textiles and elastic rubbers can be combined to manufacture novel fluid-powered soft actuators. It will demonstrate the use of embedded fiber optic sensors to measure soft robot shape. These advances will be integrated into a design framework for a new class of soft robots that can safely work with and around people, and that can reconfigure themselves to adapt to a changing environment. This project will be a significant advance towards realizing the transformative potential of soft robots in healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, exploration, environmental monitoring, and national security. Two experimental testbeds representing the diversity of applications will validate the results of the project -- a soft tentacle-like robot will perform simulated orthopedic surgery and a soft eel-like robot will demonstrate swimming and climbing for navigating and exploring challenging environments. Outreach activities at the participating universities will encourage local communities to see, touch, and learn about the most recent scientific developments in soft robotics, reaching an estimated 10,000 people annually in Nashville, Knoxville, and Tallahassee.For soft robots to fulfil their enormous promise, fundamental research is needed in modeling, sensing, actuating, and controlling soft robots that are underactuated, have infinite degrees of freedom, and are highly influenced by interaction with humans, other robots, the environment, and even themselves. The intellectual contribution of this research in modeling, estimation, and control will extend dynamic Cosserat rod theory to account for soft robot cross section deformations. In sensing, novel fiber optic shape sensor technology will reveal new fundamental knowledge of soft robot shape and interaction in real-time and without line-of-sight restrictions. In design, new manufacturing methods that use a 2D fabrication approach with multifunctional and task-specific material layers will create complex scalable 3D structures, and high power-density miniature hydraulic power systems will be developed as the future of actuation and power transmission for soft robotics.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.