EFRI C3 SoRo: 3-D surface control for object manipulation with stretchable materials

该项目将创造知识来实现一种新型的主动软机器人，它可以从一个名义上的平面动态地进化出三维软突起。这些移动的形状将能够轻轻地、安全地定位和操纵放在地面上的重而精致的物体。软体机器人是与人类互动的理想选择，因为它们在接触时会安全地变形，就像生物软组织一样。该项目将使主动软机器人表面能够在没有高接触力的情况下跟踪和操纵三维空间中人类大小的物体。2018年，患者处理伤害占医疗保健相关工作者赔偿索赔的25%，工人背部伤害使美国医疗保健行业损失86亿美元。该项目的成果将有助于实现安全舒适地处理病人、提高医疗保健质量和减少护理人员受伤的目标。通过防止伤害和减少护士的工作量，该项目将解决为老龄化人口提供护理的巨大挑战。该项目将促进一项教育计划，通过给予工程和护理学生彼此的经验，培养他们的跨学科素养。加深他们对当前医疗保健能力和挑战的理解。本研究项目将通过以下三方面的创新，对软机器人的能力做出根本性的进步：调节膨胀弹性体刚度的电可寻址聚合物，2。3.实时形状感知、接触检测和使用高斯曲率的形状预测；一种分级控制策略，它不是试图精确控制可变形机器人，而是通过接触点实现被操纵物体的期望运动。本项目以团队的优势为基础，克服了软机器人研究中的基本挑战，包括高应变和大力的形状控制驱动，软机器人传感和本体感觉，与外部物体交互时可拉伸材料的无限维状态建模和估计，以及具有连续，柔韧和可重构弹性表面的外部物体的控制策略。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project will create knowledge to realize a new class of active soft robots that can dynamically evolve three-dimensional soft protuberances from a nominally planar surface. These moving shapes will be capable of gently and safely positioning and manipulating heavy but delicate objects that are resting on the surface. Soft robots are ideal for interactions with humans because they safely deform upon contact, much as biological soft tissue does. This project will enable active soft robotic surfaces able to track and manipulate human-sized objects in three-dimensional space without high contact forces. In 2018 patient handling injuries accounted for 25% of healthcare-related worker's comp claims and back injuries to workers cost the US healthcare industry $8.6 billion. The results of this project will advance the goal of assisting the safe and comfortable handling of patients, to enhance the quality of healthcare and reduce injuries in the nursing workforce. By preventing injury and reducing nurses' work load this project will address the grand challenge of providing care to our aging population. The project will promote an educational program to build the cross-disciplinary literacy of engineering and nursing students, by giving each experience in the other?s work domain and deepening their understanding of current healthcare capabilities and challenges.This research project will make fundamental advances to soft robotic capabilities through three innovations: 1. electrically addressable polymers that modulate the stiffness of inflated elastomers, 2. real-time shape sensing, contact detection, and shape prediction using Gaussian curvature, and 3. a hierarchical control policy that, rather than attempting precise control of the deformable robot, achieves desired motion of the manipulated object through contact points. This project builds from strengths of the assembled team to overcome fundamental challenges in soft robotics research, including shape-controlled actuation with high strain and large forces, soft robotic sensing and proprioception, modeling and estimating the infinite dimensional state of stretchable materials while interacting with external objects, and control strategies to manipulate external objects with continuous, compliant, and re-configurable elastomeric surfaces.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.