SOFT ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS
1. Soft Actuator Based Robot
● Compliant microgripper using a soft polymer actuator
Microgrippers that incorporate soft actuators are appropriate for micromanipulation or microsurgery owing to their ability to grasp objects without causing damage. We introduce a compliant microgripper driven by a soft dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA). The developed compliant microgripper was able to grasp various millimeter-scale objects with different shapes, sizes, and weights without a complex feedback control owing to its compliance.
● Prosthetic Wrist with Shape Memory Alloy (SMA)-based Artificial Muscle and Elliptic Rolling Joint
We developed a novel prosthetic wrist with an elliptic rolling joint and SMA spring-based actuators, mimicking human anatomy to offer a comparable range of motion and load-bearing capacity. It's lightweight, provides two degrees of freedom, can lift over 20 times its weight, and features variable joint stiffness.
2. Soft Gripper
● Electroadhesion-based high-payload soft gripper
Soft grippers are more compliant, having simpler structure than rigid grippers and can grab unknown objects by a simple control algorithm. We have interests in the use of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) for soft gripper. DEAs have advantages in large strain, fast response, lightweight and self-sensing capability. To enhance the grasping force, electroadhesion pad was combined with soft gripper. The gripper can lift and move various shaped objects 100 times heavier than the gripper's mass.
● AI control for soft robotic grasping application
Despite the advantages and improvements of soft robots especially soft grippers not many studies have been addressed to their control for soft robotics applications. With that in mind we developed a AI system that system exploits soft gripper’s advantages; such as compliance with the target object shape. To Do that we trained the system using imitation learning with kinesthetic demonstrations from human experts, which are captured with a single RGB-D camera. The system shows high performance following expert trajectories and grasping different object shapes.
● Soft sensor embedded on a soft gripper for precise grasping
Soft robotic grippers are becoming a popular way to manipulate objects in a variety of industries. They're versatile and safe, However, precise force control is critical, particularly when handling delicate or fragile objects to avoid excessive grip force application, or to avoid slipping of objects. Therefore we developed a novel multi-directional force sensor embodied within a soft robotic gripper, enabling precise grasping with force feedback. This optical sensor employs light-weight and compact optical fibers which makes a robust sensing system immune to electromagnetic fields. Also these optical fibers can work as a strengthening layer, eliminating the need to embed an external stiffening structure. The innovative contact-based light loss sensing mechanism allows for a robust, and stable sensing mechanism for normal and shear force with low drift (< 0.1% over 9000 cycles), applicable to soft pneumatic bending grippers.
