A Thermoplastic Elastomer Belt Based Robotic Gripper

Novel robotic grippers have captured increasing interests recently because of their abilities to adapt to varieties of circumstances and their powerful functionalities. Differing from traditional gripper with mechanical components-made fingers, novel robotic grippers are typically made of novel structures and materials, using a novel manufacturing process. In this paper, a novel robotic gripper with external frame and internal thermoplastic elastomer belt-made net is proposed. The gripper grasps objects using the friction between the net and objects. It has the ability of adaptive gripping through flexible contact surface. Stress simulation has been used to explore the regularity between the normal stress on the net and the deformation of the net. Experiments are conducted on a variety of objects to measure the force needed to reliably grip and hold the object. Test results show that the gripper can successfully grip objects with varying shape, dimensions, and textures. It is promising that the gripper can be used for grasping fragile objects in the industry or out in the field, and also grasping the marine organisms without hurting them

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)

Field testing of biohybrid robotic jellyfish to demonstrate enhanced swimming speeds

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Xu, N. W., Townsend, J. P., Costello, J. H., Colin, S. P., Gemmell, B. J., & Dabiri, J. O. Field testing of biohybrid robotic jellyfish to demonstrate enhanced swimming speeds. Biomimetics, 5(4), (2020): E64, doi:10.3390/biomimetics5040064.Biohybrid robotic designs incorporating live animals and self-contained microelectronic systems can leverage the animals’ own metabolism to reduce power constraints and act as natural chassis and actuators with damage tolerance. Previous work established that biohybrid robotic jellyfish can exhibit enhanced speeds up to 2.8 times their baseline behavior in laboratory environments. However, it remains unknown if the results could be applied in natural, dynamic ocean environments and what factors can contribute to large animal variability. Deploying this system in the coastal waters of Massachusetts, we validate and extend prior laboratory work by demonstrating increases in jellyfish swimming speeds up to 2.3 times greater than their baseline, with absolute swimming speeds up to 6.6 ± 0.3 cm s−1. These experimental swimming speeds are predicted using a hydrodynamic model with morphological and time-dependent input parameters obtained from field experiment videos. The theoretical model can provide a basis to choose specific jellyfish with desirable traits to maximize enhancements from robotic manipulation. With future work to increase maneuverability and incorporate sensors, biohybrid robotic jellyfish can potentially be used to track environmental changes in applications for ocean monitoring.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awarded to N.W.X

A Vacuum-driven Origami “Magic-ball” Soft Gripper

Soft robotics has yielded numerous examples of soft grippers that utilize compliance to achieve impressive grasping performances with great simplicity, adaptability, and robustness. Designing soft grippers with substantial grasping strength while remaining compliant and gentle is one of the most important challenges in this field. In this paper, we present a light-weight, vacuum-driven soft robotic gripper made of an origami “magic-ball” and a flexible thin membrane. We also describe the design and fabrication method to rapidly manufacture the gripper with different combinations of lowcost materials for diverse applications. Grasping experiments demonstrate that our gripper can lift a large variety of objects, including delicate foods, heavy bottles, and other miscellaneous items. The grasp force on 3D-printed objects is also characterized through mechanical load tests. The results reveal that our soft gripper can produce significant grasp force on various shapes using negative pneumatic pressure (vacuum). This new gripper holds the potential for many practical applications that require safe, strong, and simple graspingUnited States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (award number FA8650-15-C-7548)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (award number 1830901)Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired EngineeringJD.co

Accelerating ocean species discovery and laying the foundations for the future of marine biodiversity research and monitoring

This is the final version. Available from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this record. Ocean Census is a new Large-Scale Strategic Science Mission aimed at accelerating the discovery and description of marine species. This mission addresses the knowledge gap of the diversity and distribution of marine life whereby of an estimated 1 million to 2 million species of marine life between 75% to 90% remain undescribed to date. Without improved knowledge of marine biodiversity, tackling the decline and eventual extinction of many marine species will not be possible. The marine biota has evolved over 4 billion years and includes many branches of the tree of life that do not exist on land or in freshwater. Understanding what is in the ocean and where it lives is fundamental science, which is required to understand how the ocean works, the direct and indirect benefits it provides to society and how human impacts can be reduced and managed to ensure marine ecosystems remain healthy. We describe a strategy to accelerate the rate of ocean species discovery by: 1) employing consistent standards for digitisation of species data to broaden access to biodiversity knowledge and enabling cybertaxonomy; 2) establishing new working practices and adopting advanced technologies to accelerate taxonomy; 3) building the capacity of stakeholders to undertake taxonomic and biodiversity research and capacity development, especially targeted at low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) so they can better assess and manage life in their waters and contribute to global biodiversity knowledge; and 4) increasing observational coverage on dedicated expeditions. Ocean Census, is conceived as a global open network of scientists anchored by Biodiversity Centres in developed countries and LMICs. Through a collaborative approach, including co-production of science with LMICs, and by working with funding partners, Ocean Census will focus and grow current efforts to discover ocean life globally, and permanently transform our ability to document, describe and safeguard marine species.Nippon Foundatio

Rotary-actuated folding polyhedrons for midwater investigation of delicate marine organisms

Self-folding polyhedra have emerged as a viable design strategy for a wide range of applications, with advances largely made through modeling and experimentation at the micro- and millimeter scale. Translating these concepts to larger scales for practical purposes is an obvious next step; however, the size, weight, and method of actuation present a new set of problems to overcome. We have developed large-scale folding polyhedra to rapidly and noninvasively enclose marine organisms in the water column. The design is based on an axisymmetric dodecahedron net that is folded by an external assembly linkage. Requiring only a single rotary actuator to fold, the device is suited for remote operation onboard underwater vehicles and has been field-tested to encapsulate a variety of delicate deep-sea organisms. Our work validates the use of self-folding polyhedra for marine biological applications that require minimal actuation to achieve complex motion. The device was tested to 700 m, but the system was designed to withstand full ocean depth (11 km) pressures. We envision broader terrestrial applications of rotary-actuated folding polyhedra, ranging from large-scale deployable habitats and satellite solar arrays to small-scale functional origami microelectromechanical systems

Design, analysis and prototype of new geometries in deployable structures of straight, bistable and non-bistable scissors. Our world in one line: deploying the reality

El principal interés que radica en los sistemas desplegables es su capacidad de poder transicionardesde un estado compacto, de menor tamaño y fácil transporte hasta una posición final donde adquiere un volumen útil considerablemente mayor. Dentro del concepto de “sistema desplegable” se pueden encontrar una gran cantidad de diseños donde cada uno tiene sus respectivas ventajas y desventajas. Sin embargo, desde el punto de vista de la Arquitectura y de la Ingeniería, los más importantes son los compuestos solo por barras, solo por paneles o por una combinación de ambos. Su estudio, análisis y diseño ha ido evolucionando a lo largo de los años y donde se ha podido observar una mejora considerable en su entendimiento y comportamiento estructural mediante el uso de las nuevas herramientas informáticas. Este avance ha permitido la aplicación de este campo del conocimiento en multitud de disciplinas como es la cirugía médica, la industria aeroespacial o el sector militar y se prevé que en las próximas décadas su uso sea cada vez más frecuente y demandado.El objetivo de esta investigación es aplicar las nuevas tecnologías de simulación al diseño, creación y optimización de las estructuras desplegables de aspas rectas. En este texto se tratarán temas como es un método de diseño que proporciona todas las opciones geométricas posibles, la automatización del proceso de desplegado o el estudio del uso de paneles rígidos en la cubrición de la estructura