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Design and Development of a Soft Robotic Earthworm with Hydrostatic Skeleton | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Design and Development of a Soft Robotic Earthworm with Hydrostatic Skeleton


Abstract:

In this paper, we present a soft earthworm robot with a hydrostatic skeleton, i.e., fluid-filled body surrounded by muscles, which is similar to that found in a real eart...Show More

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a soft earthworm robot with a hydrostatic skeleton, i.e., fluid-filled body surrounded by muscles, which is similar to that found in a real earthworm. The robot consists of two viscoelastic silicone rubber segments that mimic a constant-volume hydrostatic skeleton, and is capable of peristaltic locomotion using axial and radial deformation of the soft hydrostatic segments. The segments are pressured by axially-arranged spring-shaped memory alloy (SMA) wires, and the artificial legs on each segment replicate the anisotropic friction of the setae on earthworms. We investigated the effects of the viscoelastic properties of different rubber materials on the strain and recovery time in order to select the optimum material. An earthworm fabricated with the optimum material exhibited a maximum speed of 0.96 mm/s on a level surface, which is faster than similar existing robotic systems.
Date of Conference: 05-08 December 2017
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 26 March 2018
ISBN Information:
Conference Location: Macau, Macao

References

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