3 research outputs found
Wirelessly-Controlled Untethered Piezoelectric Planar Soft Robot Capable of Bidirectional Crawling and Rotation
Electrostatic actuators provide a promising approach to creating soft robotic
sheets, due to their flexible form factor, modular integration, and fast
response speed. However, their control requires kilo-Volt signals and
understanding of complex dynamics resulting from force interactions by on-board
and environmental effects. In this work, we demonstrate an untethered planar
five-actuator piezoelectric robot powered by batteries and on-board
high-voltage circuitry, and controlled through a wireless link. The scalable
fabrication approach is based on bonding different functional layers on top of
each other (steel foil substrate, actuators, flexible electronics). The robot
exhibits a range of controllable motions, including bidirectional crawling (up
to ~0.6 cm/s), turning, and in-place rotation (at ~1 degree/s). High-speed
videos and control experiments show that the richness of the motion results
from the interaction of an asymmetric mass distribution in the robot and the
associated dependence of the dynamics on the driving frequency of the
piezoelectrics. The robot's speed can reach 6 cm/s with specific payload
distribution.Comment: Accepted to the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automation (ICRA
Design and Fabrication of Soft 3D Printed Actuators: Expanding Soft Robotics Applications
Soft pneumatic actuators are ideal for soft robotic applications due to their innate compliance and high power-weight ratios. Presently, the majority of soft pneumatic actuators are used to create bending motions, with very few able to produce significant linear movements. Fewer can actively produce strains in multiple directions. The further development of these actuators is limited by their fabrication methods, specifically the lack of suitable stretchable materials for 3D printing.
In this thesis, a new highly elastic resin for digital light projection 3D printers, designated ElastAMBER, is developed and evaluated, which shows improvements over previously synthesised elastic resins. It is prepared from a di-functional polyether urethane acrylate oligomer and a blend of two different diluent monomers. ElastAMBER exhibits a viscosity of 1000 mPa.s at 40 °C, allowing easy printing at near room temperatures. The 3D-printed components present an elastomeric behaviour with a maximum extension ratio of 4.02 ± 0.06, an ultimate tensile strength of (1.23 ± 0.09) MPa, low hysteresis, and negligible viscoelastic relaxation