An Opposite-Bending-and-Extension Soft Robotic Manipulator for Delicate Grasping in Shallow Water

Collecting seafood animals (such as sea cucumbers, sea echini, scallops, etc.) cultivated in shallow water (water depth: ~30 m) is a profitable and an emerging field that requires robotics for replacing human divers. Soft robotics have several promising features (e.g., safe contact with the objects, lightweight, etc.) for performing such a task. In this paper, we implement a soft manipulator with an opposite-bending-and-extension structure. A simple and rapid inverse kinematics method is proposed to control the spatial location and trajectory of the underwater soft manipulator's end effector. We introduce the actuation hardware of the prototype, and then characterize the trajectory and workspace. We find that the prototype can well track fundamental trajectories such as a line and an arc. Finally, we construct a small underwater robot and demonstrate that the underwater soft manipulator successfully collects multiple irregular shaped seafood animals of different sizes and stiffness at the bottom of the natural oceanic environment (water depth: ~10 m)

TECHNICAL METHODS OF CLEANING SHIPWRECKS FROM GHOST NETS

Ghost nets are fishing gear lost and left in bodies of water that continue to be fished. Most of the fishing gear that is lost is made of synthetic materials that break down very slowly or not at all in nature and continue to work long after the net is lost. A ghost net drifts in the sea until it catches on an object, most often a shipwreck. This harms both nature and people\u27s economic interests. Currently, the release of shipwrecks and other sunken objects from fragments of lost nets is mainly done by human hands, resp. divers dive to the wreck and use hand tools to free the wreck from fragments of fishing gear. There are innovative robotic systems in the world that can partially replace the work of divers.

An agile multi-body additively manufactured soft actuator for soft manipulators

With the introduction of collaborative robots in production environments, the harm to workers by using traditional robots with rigid links is inherent. A new generation of robots made from flexible soft materials that decreases collision danger by self-deforming actions has been proposed as a promising solution for the human-robot collaboration environments. Recently, by the development of additive manufacture of elastic soft materials, new design opportunities arise for these so-called soft robots. However, robustness that is required for production environments is still not achieved. This paper presents a design approach of a fully additively manufactured three-axis soft pneumatic actuator. For its use in flexible soft robotic manipulator systems, design guidelines, a direct 3D printing process with elastic materials and a low-level PLC semi-automated pressure regulation control system are presented. To validate the proposed design, the actuator is manufactured and tested for maximum contact force, bending motion reaction and its signal response.Con la introducción de robots colaborativos en entornos de producción, el daño a los trabajadores por el uso de robots tradicionales con enlaces rígidos es inherente. Se ha propuesto una nueva generación de robots hechos de materiales blandos flexibles que reduce el peligro de colisión mediante acciones de autodeformación como una solución prometedora para los entornos de colaboración humano-robot. Recientemente, con el desarrollo de la fabricación aditiva de materiales blandos elásticos, surgen nuevas oportunidades de diseño para estos llamados robots blandos. Sin embargo, aún no se logra la robustez que se requiere para los entornos de producción. Este documento presenta un enfoque de diseño de un actuador neumático blando de tres ejes fabricado de forma totalmente aditiva. Para su uso en sistemas de manipuladores robóticos blandos flexibles, se presentan pautas de diseño, un proceso de impresión 3D directo con materiales elásticos y un sistema de control de regulación de presión semiautomatizado PLC de bajo nivel. Para validar el diseño propuesto, el actuador se fabrica y prueba para la fuerza de contacto máxima, la reacción de movimiento de flexión y su respuesta de señal