Abstract
Soft actuators are free from any rigid, bulky, and hard components. This is greatly beneficial towards achieving compliant actuation and safe interactions in robots. Inspired by the eversion principle, we develop a novel soft actuator of the inhomogeneous cross-section that can linearly extend and achieve a large payload capability. The proposed soft actuator is a hollow sleeve, made from an airtight fabric, and features a top part of cylindrical shape and a bottom part of a conical shape. Unlike conventional eversion robots that extend unilaterally from the tip, in this proposed actuator the top cylindrical part and the bottom conical part are partially folded inwards so that the two tips are attached together. When pneumatic pressure is applied, the cylindrical part everts increasing in length while the conical section reduces in length folding inwards. The actuator achieves linear strains of 120% and can generate a force 84 N at a low pressure of 62 kPa. We develop a theoretical model to describe the force and strain characteristics of the actuator during eversion from conical shape to cylindrical shape. The results showcase a step towards large strain, high force actuators for safe and compliant robots.
This work was supported in part by the EPSRC National Centre for Nuclear Robotics project (EP/R02572X/1) and the Innovate UK WormBot project (104059).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hassan, A., Godaba, H., Althoefer, K.: Design analysis of a fabric based lightweight robotic gripper. In: Althoefer, K., Konstantinova, J., Zhang, K. (eds.) TAROS 2019. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 11649, pp. 16–27. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23807-0_2
Abrar, T., Putzu, F., Althoefer, K.: Soft wearable glove for tele-rehabilitation therapy of clenched hand/fingers patients. In: Annual Conference on New Technologies for Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery, pp. 93–94 (2018)
Putzu, F., Abrar, T., Althoefer, K.: Development of a soft inflatable structure with variable stiffness for hand rehabilitation. In: Annual Conference on New Technologies for Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery, pp. 103–104 (2018)
Coad, M.M., et al.: Vine robots: design, teleoperation, and deployment for navigation and exploration. arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.00069 (2019)
Luong, J., et al.: Eversion and retraction of a soft robot towards the exploration of coral reefs. In: 2019 2nd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), pp. 801–807. IEEE (2019)
Ataka, A., Stilli, A., Konstantinova, J., Wurdemann, H.A., Althoefer, K.: Kinematic control and obstacle avoidance for soft inflatable manipulator. In: Althoefer, K., Konstantinova, J., Zhang, K. (eds.) TAROS 2019. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 11649, pp. 52–64. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23807-0_5
Niiyama, R., Rus, D., Kim, S.: Pouch motors: printable/inflatable soft actuators for robotics. In: 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 6332–6337. IEEE (2014)
Tondu, B., Lopez, P.: The McKibben muscle and its use in actuating robot-arms showing similarities with human arm behaviour. Ind. Robot Int. J. 24(6), 432–9 (1997)
Maghooa, F., Stilli, A., Noh, Y., Althoefer, K., Wurdemann, H.A.: Tendon and pressure actuation for a bio-inspired manipulator based on an antagonistic principle. In: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 2556–2561. IEEE (2015)
Stilli, A., Wurdemann, H.A., Althoefer, K.: Shrinkable, stiffness-controllable soft manipulator based on a bio-inspired antagonistic actuation principle. In: 2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 2476–2481. IEEE (2014)
Abrar, T.A., Putzu, F., Konstantinova, J., Althoefer, K.: EPAM: Eversive pneumatic artificial muscle. In: 2019 2nd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), pp. 19–24. IEEE (2019)
Hawkes, E.W., Blumenschein, L.H., Greer, J.D., Okamura, A.M.: A soft robot that navigates its environment through growth. Sci. Robot. 2(8), eaan3028 (2017)
Cianchetti, M., et al.: Soft robotics technologies to address shortcomings in today’s minimally invasive surgery: the STIFF-FLOP approach. Soft Robot. 1(2), 122–31 (2014)
Hawkes, E.W., Christensen, D.L., Okamura, A.M.: Design and implementation of a 300% strain soft artificial muscle. In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 4022–4029. IEEE (2016)
Godaba, H., Putzu, F., Abrar, T., Konstantinova, J., Althoefer, K.: Payload capabilities and operational limits of eversion robots. In: Althoefer, K., Konstantinova, J., Zhang, K. (eds.) TAROS 2019. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 11650, pp. 383–394. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25332-5_33
Putzu, F., Abrar, T., Althoefer, K.: Plant-inspired soft pneumatic eversion robot. In: 2018 7th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), pp. 1327–1332. IEEE (2018)
Acknowledgment
This work was supported in part by the EPSRC National Centre for Nuclear Robotics project (EP/R02572X/1), the Innovate UK WormBot project (104059).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Abrar, T., Hassan, A., Putzu, F., Godaba, H., Ataka, A., Althoefer, K. (2020). An Inhomogeneous Structured Eversion Actuator. In: Mohammad, A., Dong, X., Russo, M. (eds) Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. TAROS 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12228. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63486-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63486-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-63485-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-63486-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)