An overview of novel actuators for soft robotics

In this systematic survey, an overview of non-conventional actuators particularly used in soft-robotics is presented. The review is performed by using well-defined performance criteria with a direction to identify the exemplary and potential applications. In addition to this, initial guidelines to compare the performance and applicability of these novel actuators are provided. The meta-analysis is restricted to five main types of actuators: shape memory alloys (SMAs), fluidic elastomer actuators (FEAs), shape morphing polymers (SMPs), dielectric electro-activated polymers (DEAPs), and magnetic/electro-magnetic actuators (E/MAs). In exploring and comparing the capabilities of these actuators, the focus was on eight different aspects: compliance, topology-geometry, scalability-complexity, energy efficiency, operation range, modality, controllability, and technological readiness level (TRL). The overview presented here provides a state-of-the-art summary of the advancements and can help researchers to select the most convenient soft actuators using the comprehensive comparison of the suggested quantitative and qualitative criteria

Bio-Inspired Robotics

Modern robotic technologies have enabled robots to operate in a variety of unstructured and dynamically-changing environments, in addition to traditional structured environments. Robots have, thus, become an important element in our everyday lives. One key approach to develop such intelligent and autonomous robots is to draw inspiration from biological systems. Biological structure, mechanisms, and underlying principles have the potential to provide new ideas to support the improvement of conventional robotic designs and control. Such biological principles usually originate from animal or even plant models, for robots, which can sense, think, walk, swim, crawl, jump or even fly. Thus, it is believed that these bio-inspired methods are becoming increasingly important in the face of complex applications. Bio-inspired robotics is leading to the study of innovative structures and computing with sensory–motor coordination and learning to achieve intelligence, flexibility, stability, and adaptation for emergent robotic applications, such as manipulation, learning, and control. This Special Issue invites original papers of innovative ideas and concepts, new discoveries and improvements, and novel applications and business models relevant to the selected topics of ``Bio-Inspired Robotics''. Bio-Inspired Robotics is a broad topic and an ongoing expanding field. This Special Issue collates 30 papers that address some of the important challenges and opportunities in this broad and expanding field

Design and Evaluation of AIRGAIT Exoskeleton\u27s Leg Orthosis: Development of a Control Scheme and Strategy for a Noble Control of Antagonistic Mono- and Bi-Articular Actuators

芝浦工業大学201

A hand exoskeleton for study of rehabilitation and assistance of spinal cord injury patients

A large number of people experience neurological disorders in their life time, and these patients seek to regain their body functions with rehabilitation and assistive devices. In this dissertation, we present the development of a hand exoskeleton, called Maestro, which is designed to advance research in fields of hand rehabilitation and hand assistive devices. Maestro is mechanically and electrically robust, accurate in sensing and actuation, and compatible to various rehabilitation schemes, subjects, hardware/software, and different operators. As a result of these features, Maestro has led to research on adaptive control theories for diverse properties of hands, the development of a hand-wrist exoskeleton, the development of a novel rehabilitation framework, progress of hand muscle fatigues, and assistance for SCI patients. Particularly on the assistance for SCI patients, we present that the advantage of a compliant hand assistive device may result in high success ratios for grasping various objects required in activities of daily living (ADL) with surface EMG sensors. The hand functions of SCI subjects are evaluated with and without Maestro through a standardized hand function test called Sollerman hand function test (SHFT). The results with six SCI subjects show that the hand functions of C6 and C7 SCI subjects improved with assistance from Maestro.Mechanical Engineerin