TY - JOUR
T1 - Reachability Improvement of a Climbing Robot Based on Large Deformations Induced by Tri-Tube Soft Actuators
AU - Kanada, Ayato
AU - Giardina, Fabio
AU - Howison, Toby
AU - Mashimo, Tomoaki
AU - Iida, Fumiya
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellow (No. 17J04776), the United Kingdom’s Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) DTP under Award 1476475 and RG92738, and Mathworks Ltd RG90950 378.
Publisher Copyright:
© Ayato Kanada et al. 2019; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2019.
PY - 2019/8
Y1 - 2019/8
N2 - Locomotion of soft-bodied organisms, such as amoeba, worms, and octopuses, is safe, robust, and adaptable and has great promise for applications in complex environments. While such organisms fully exploit the potential provided by their soft structures, engineering solutions commonly constrain soft deformation in favor of controllability. In this study, we study how soft deformations can enhance the climbing capabilities of a robot. We introduce a robot called Longitudinally Extensible Continuum-robot inspired by Hirudinea (LEeCH), which has few shape constraints. Inspired by real leeches, LEeCH has a flexible extensible body and two suction cups at the ends. It is capable of performing 3D climbing locomotion using two suction cups driven by vacuum pumps and tri-tube soft actuators which have only three DC motors. The large deformations occurring in LEeCH extend its workspace compared to robots based on constant curvature models, and we show successful locomotion transition from one surface to another at angles between 0° and 180° in experiment. We develop a model based on multibody dynamics to predict the nonlinear deformations of the robot, which we verify in the experiment. The model reveals a nondimensional morphological parameter, which relates the robot's shape to its mass, stiffness, and size. The workspace of LEeCH as a function of this parameter is studied in simulation and is shown to move beyond that of robots based on constant curvature models.
AB - Locomotion of soft-bodied organisms, such as amoeba, worms, and octopuses, is safe, robust, and adaptable and has great promise for applications in complex environments. While such organisms fully exploit the potential provided by their soft structures, engineering solutions commonly constrain soft deformation in favor of controllability. In this study, we study how soft deformations can enhance the climbing capabilities of a robot. We introduce a robot called Longitudinally Extensible Continuum-robot inspired by Hirudinea (LEeCH), which has few shape constraints. Inspired by real leeches, LEeCH has a flexible extensible body and two suction cups at the ends. It is capable of performing 3D climbing locomotion using two suction cups driven by vacuum pumps and tri-tube soft actuators which have only three DC motors. The large deformations occurring in LEeCH extend its workspace compared to robots based on constant curvature models, and we show successful locomotion transition from one surface to another at angles between 0° and 180° in experiment. We develop a model based on multibody dynamics to predict the nonlinear deformations of the robot, which we verify in the experiment. The model reveals a nondimensional morphological parameter, which relates the robot's shape to its mass, stiffness, and size. The workspace of LEeCH as a function of this parameter is studied in simulation and is shown to move beyond that of robots based on constant curvature models.
KW - climbing
KW - continuum robots
KW - nonlinear deformation modeling
KW - soft actuators
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U2 - 10.1089/soro.2018.0115
DO - 10.1089/soro.2018.0115
M3 - Article
C2 - 30917091
AN - SCOPUS:85070377251
SN - 2169-5172
VL - 6
SP - 483
EP - 494
JO - Soft Robotics
JF - Soft Robotics
IS - 4
ER -