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A Programmable Mechanical Freedom and Variable Stiffness Soft Actuator with Low Melting Point Alloy

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Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10462))

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Abstract

Soft robotic technologies have been widely used in the fields like bio-robotics, wearable devices, and industrial manipulations. However, existing soft robots usually require multiple pneumatic/fluidic channels for pressurizing soft material segments in series or in parallel to achieve multiple mechanical degrees of freedom. In this study, we demonstrated a soft actuator embedded with Low-Melting-Point Alloy (LMPA), with which the mechanical degrees and stiffness can be selectively controlled. The LMPA was embedded in the bottom of the actuator, with the Ni-Cr wires serpentining under different positions of the LMPA layer. Through a reheating- recrystallizing circle, the actuator can self-heal and recover from the crack state. The melting process of the LMPA under different currents and different sections, the variable stiffness, the self-healing properties, and the programmable mechanical freedom of the actuator was explored through experiments. The results showed that the LMPA could be melted about 10 s under the current of 0.7 A. With the LMPA, the bending force and the elasticity modulus of the actuator could be enhanced up to 16 times and 4,000 times separately. Moreover, up to six motion patterns could be achieved under the same air pressure inflated to a typical single-chamber soft actuator. The combination of Low-Melting-Point Alloy and the soft actuators may open up a diversity of applications for future soft robotics.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation support projects, China under contract number 61633004, 61403012, and 61333016; the Open Research Fund of Key Laboratory Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 6050000201607004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Yufei Hao, Tianmiao Wang & Li Wen

Authors
  1. Yufei Hao
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  2. Tianmiao Wang
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  3. Li Wen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li Wen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    YongAn Huang

  2. School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Hao Wu

  3. Institute of Industrial Research, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

    Honghai Liu

  4. School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Zhouping Yin

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Hao, Y., Wang, T., Wen, L. (2017). A Programmable Mechanical Freedom and Variable Stiffness Soft Actuator with Low Melting Point Alloy. In: Huang, Y., Wu, H., Liu, H., Yin, Z. (eds) Intelligent Robotics and Applications. ICIRA 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10462. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65289-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65289-4_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65288-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65289-4

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