软体机器人:结构、驱动、传感与控制

Soft Robotics:Structure, Actuation, Sensing and Control

软体机器人由软材料加工而成,自身可连续变形,与刚性机器人相比具有更高的柔顺性、安全性和适应性,在人机交互、复杂易碎品抓持和狭小空间作业等方面具有不可比拟的优势。综述软体机器人的发展历程,将软体机器人归为传统绳索驱动/气动肌肉机器人、超弹性材料软体机器人和智能材料软体机器人三大类。从仿生结构和仿生运动、驱动与加工、传感与控制三个方面对软体机器人的相关科学问题以及存在的技术难点进行总结与分析。分析了软体机器人在仿生结构、抓持作业和医疗康复等领域潜在的应用价值。对软体机器人目前的发展现状和存在的关键科学难点进行了系统的总结,并得出刚柔耦合、可变刚度和驱动传感控制一体化等研究方向可能是未来软体机器人研究新的突破点。

Soft robots primarily consist of soft materials which can generate continuous deformation. Soft robots are considered to be safer, more adaptable and compliant than the rigid robots. These advantages lead them to have potential applications in the human-robot interaction, grasping complex and fragile objects, and navigate through narrow space for operation tasks. In the review paper, the soft robots have been divided into three categories： the cable-driven and traditional pneumatic soft robots, the hyperelastic material soft robots, and the smart material soft robots. While from the scientific perspective, the principal challenges of the soft robotics are summarized from the following three aspects： the structure and locomotion, the actuation and fabrication, as well as the sensing and control. The potential applications of the soft robots in areas including manipulation, medical and wearable devices were also reviewed. In the end, the variable stiffness, the integration of actuation sensing and control of soft robots are proposed as the promising potential research directions.