EFRI C3 SoRo: Programmable Skins for Moldable and Morphogenetic Soft Robots

该项目旨在解决准备机器人执行一组已知任务的问题，尽管缺乏关于要执行的任务或任务发生的环境的任何信息。所采取的方法是构建一个主动的机器人皮肤，将运动，传感和决策集成到一个具有嵌入式传感器和执行器的单一舒适材料皮肤中，并将其包裹在一个被动的，可成型的核心材料上。皮肤的作用是使核心变形，从而使机器人以一种利用进化算法对周围环境进行优化的方式移动。在初步工作中，PI团队已经展示了一个最初的球形机器人，它首先使自己滚动，然后变形成圆柱体，然后切换到一英寸蠕虫式的步态。该项目将利用生物系统的新见解，为能够编辑自己的算法控制结构的机器人推导出新的操作原理，以利用不断变化的解剖结构，实现更强大的功能。这项研究的结果将使变形机器人能够调整其形态来完成不同的任务或更有效地移动，以满足不断变化的环境或背景的需求。这个项目致力于生产一种变革性的工具，可以适应探索或发现未知的、危险的或不可预测的环境。刚性机器人通常擅长于结构化环境中的特定任务，但缺乏在自然世界中与之互动和移动所需的多功能性和适应性。这个项目将引入机器人皮肤，包裹在任意柔软的物体上，以诱导所需的运动和变形。随着机器人皮肤的加入，被动的软体可能会变成主动的软体机器人。机器人皮肤将驱动、传感、可变刚度和计算集成到一个单一的兼容材料中，并且可以用来创建能够在非结构化和动态环境中编辑自己的形态和控制的变形机器人。提出的工作目标是开发和实施端到端程序，该程序从行为规范开始，以物理自变形软机器人及其软件环境结束。该方法将采用机器人皮肤作为变形机器的基础，通过将它们包裹在可成型材料（例如粘土）周围，实现表面驱动的形状变化。机器人皮肤将通过控制表面张力、表面压力和选择性硬化将底层身体塑造成所需的形状。随着环境或任务的变化，皮肤会将身体重新塑造成适合其环境的新形状。这种方法将利用来自不同生物系统的新见解来推导新的数学模型、进化算法和多功能材料，从而为软机器人提供无与伦比的上下文敏感变形能力。该项目由美国国家科学基金会、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）联合赞助。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 seeks to address the problem of preparing a robot to perform a set of known tasks, despite the lack of any information about the task to be performed or the environment in which it occurs. The approach taken is to construct an active robotic skin, integrating motion, sensing, and decision-making into a single conformable material skin with embedded sensors and actuators, and wrap it around a passive, moldable core material. The skin acts to deform the core, in such a way as to make the robot move, in a manner which is optimized for its surroundings using evolutionary algorithms. In preliminary work, the PI team has demonstrated an initially spherical robot first causing itself to roll, and then morphing to a cylinder and switching to an inchworm-type gait. This project will leverage novel insights from biological systems to derive new operational principles for robots capable of editing their own algorithmic control structure to make use of a changing anatomy, enabling more robust functionality. The results of this research will enable morphing robots that can adjust their morphology to accomplish different tasks or move more efficiently to meet the demands of changing environments or contexts. This project addresses the producing of a transformative tool that can adapt for exploration or discovery of unknown, dangerous, or unpredictable environments. Rigid-bodied robots generally excel at specific tasks in structured environments, but lack the versatility and adaptability required to interact-with and locomote-within the natural world. This project will introduce robotic skins that wrap around arbitrary soft bodies to induce the desired motions and deformations. With the addition of robotic skins, passive soft bodies may be turned into active soft robots. Robotic skins integrate actuation, sensing, variable stiffness, and computation into a single conformable material, and may be leveraged to create morphing robots capable of editing their own morphology and control in unstructured and dynamic environments. The objective of the proposed work is to develop and implement an end-to-end procedure that begins with behavior specifications and ends with a physical self-morphing soft robot and its software environment. The approach will employ robotic skins as the foundation of morphing machines by wrapping them around moldable materials (e.g. clay), enabling surface-driven shape change. Robotic skins will mold the underlying body into a desired shape through controlled surface strains, surface pressures and selective stiffening. As the environment or task changes, the skin will re-mold the body into a new shape that is optimized for its context. This approach will leverage novel insights from diverse biological systems to derive new mathematical models, evolutionary algorithms, and multifunctional materials to enable unparalleled contextually-sensitive morphing capabilities for soft robots.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.