In this paper,a bionic mantis shrimp amphibious soft robot based on a dielectric elastomer is proposed to realize highly adaptive underwater multimodal motion.Under the action of an independent actuator,it is not only...In this paper,a bionic mantis shrimp amphibious soft robot based on a dielectric elastomer is proposed to realize highly adaptive underwater multimodal motion.Under the action of an independent actuator,it is not only able to complete forward/backwards motion on land but also has the ability of cyclically controllable transition motion from land to water surface,from water surface to water bottom and from water bottom to land.The fastest speed of the soft robot on land is 170 mm/s,and it can crawl while carrying up to 4.6 times its own weight.The maximum speeds on the water surface and the water bottom are 30 mm/s and 14.4 mm/s,respectively.Furthermore,the soft robot can climb from the water bottom with a 9°slope transition to land.Compared with other similar soft robots,this soft robot has outstanding advantages,such as agile speed,large load-carrying capacity,strong body flexibility,multiple motion modes and strong underwater adaptability.Finally,nonlinear motion models of land crawling and water swimming are proposed to improve the environmental adaptability under multiple modalities,and the correctness of the theoretical model is verified by experiments.展开更多
A Body and/or Caudal Fin （BCF） fish modulate its body stiffness by mechanisms consisting of antagonistic muscles. The mecha- nisms can be considered as Redundant Planar Rotational Parallel Mechanisms （RPRPM） with ...A Body and/or Caudal Fin （BCF） fish modulate its body stiffness by mechanisms consisting of antagonistic muscles. The mecha- nisms can be considered as Redundant Planar Rotational Parallel Mechanisms （RPRPM） with antagonistic flexible elements. For a typical RPRPM, its stiffness consists of the adjustable stiffness resulting from internal forces and the inherent stiffness caused by inherent com- pliances of flexible elements. In order to decouple the adjustable stiffness from the inherent stiffness and expand the range of stiffness variation, a variable-stiffness decoupled mechanism based on the Mechanically Adjustable Compliance and Controllable Equilibrium Position Actuator （MACCEPA） is presented and used to construct a soft robotic fish with large stiffness variation. According to the analysis of the evolution from RPRPM to MACCEPA, it can be found that MACCEPA is just a special type of RPRPM with only an adjustable stiffness. In addition, MACCEPA existed before RPRPM mechanism. The prototype of the soft robotic fish with variable- stiffness decoupled mechanisms is built to explore the relationships between the body stiffness and the swimming performance. It is validated experimentally that the stiffness variation multiple of the robotic fish is raised, the swimming performance of the robotic fish is improved when the stiffness is modulated to match the driving frequency.展开更多
This article presented a four-fingered soft bionic robotic gripper with variable effective actuator lengths. By combining approaches of finite element analysis, quasi-static analytical modeling, and experimental measu...This article presented a four-fingered soft bionic robotic gripper with variable effective actuator lengths. By combining approaches of finite element analysis, quasi-static analytical modeling, and experimental measurements, the deformation of the single soft actuator as a function of air pressure input in free space was analyzed. To investigate the effect of the effective actuator length on the gripping per- formance of the gripper, we conducted systematical experiments to evaluate the pull-off force, the actuation speed, the precision and error tolerance of the soft gripper while grasping objects of various sizes and shapes. A combination of depressurization and pressurization in actuation as well as applying variable effective actuator length enhanced the gripper＇s performance significantly, with no sensors. For example, with tunable effective actuator length, the gripper was able to grasp objects ranging from 2 mm 170 mm robustly. Under the optimal length, the gripper could generate the maximum pull-off force for the corresponding object size; the precision and the error tolerance of the gripper were also significantly improved compared to those of the gripper with full-length. Our soft robotic prototype exhibits a simple control and low-cost approach of gripping a wide range of objects and may have wide leverage for future industrial operations.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China,Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province with Grant No.ZR2019MEE019Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University with Grant No.2019ZRJC006.
文摘In this paper,a bionic mantis shrimp amphibious soft robot based on a dielectric elastomer is proposed to realize highly adaptive underwater multimodal motion.Under the action of an independent actuator,it is not only able to complete forward/backwards motion on land but also has the ability of cyclically controllable transition motion from land to water surface,from water surface to water bottom and from water bottom to land.The fastest speed of the soft robot on land is 170 mm/s,and it can crawl while carrying up to 4.6 times its own weight.The maximum speeds on the water surface and the water bottom are 30 mm/s and 14.4 mm/s,respectively.Furthermore,the soft robot can climb from the water bottom with a 9°slope transition to land.Compared with other similar soft robots,this soft robot has outstanding advantages,such as agile speed,large load-carrying capacity,strong body flexibility,multiple motion modes and strong underwater adaptability.Finally,nonlinear motion models of land crawling and water swimming are proposed to improve the environmental adaptability under multiple modalities,and the correctness of the theoretical model is verified by experiments.
基金This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 51275127）.
文摘A Body and/or Caudal Fin （BCF） fish modulate its body stiffness by mechanisms consisting of antagonistic muscles. The mecha- nisms can be considered as Redundant Planar Rotational Parallel Mechanisms （RPRPM） with antagonistic flexible elements. For a typical RPRPM, its stiffness consists of the adjustable stiffness resulting from internal forces and the inherent stiffness caused by inherent com- pliances of flexible elements. In order to decouple the adjustable stiffness from the inherent stiffness and expand the range of stiffness variation, a variable-stiffness decoupled mechanism based on the Mechanically Adjustable Compliance and Controllable Equilibrium Position Actuator （MACCEPA） is presented and used to construct a soft robotic fish with large stiffness variation. According to the analysis of the evolution from RPRPM to MACCEPA, it can be found that MACCEPA is just a special type of RPRPM with only an adjustable stiffness. In addition, MACCEPA existed before RPRPM mechanism. The prototype of the soft robotic fish with variable- stiffness decoupled mechanisms is built to explore the relationships between the body stiffness and the swimming performance. It is validated experimentally that the stiffness variation multiple of the robotic fish is raised, the swimming performance of the robotic fish is improved when the stiffness is modulated to match the driving frequency.
基金Acknowledgment This work was supported by the National Science Foundation support projects, China （grant numbers 61633004, 61403012, and 61333016） the Open Research Fund of Key Laboratory Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences （No.6050000201607004）. Many thanks to Ziyu Ren and Hui Wang for their kind help in implementing the experimental apparatus, con- ducting the force experiments and performing the data analysis. Thanks to Xi Fang for her kind help in revising the paper.
文摘This article presented a four-fingered soft bionic robotic gripper with variable effective actuator lengths. By combining approaches of finite element analysis, quasi-static analytical modeling, and experimental measurements, the deformation of the single soft actuator as a function of air pressure input in free space was analyzed. To investigate the effect of the effective actuator length on the gripping per- formance of the gripper, we conducted systematical experiments to evaluate the pull-off force, the actuation speed, the precision and error tolerance of the soft gripper while grasping objects of various sizes and shapes. A combination of depressurization and pressurization in actuation as well as applying variable effective actuator length enhanced the gripper＇s performance significantly, with no sensors. For example, with tunable effective actuator length, the gripper was able to grasp objects ranging from 2 mm 170 mm robustly. Under the optimal length, the gripper could generate the maximum pull-off force for the corresponding object size; the precision and the error tolerance of the gripper were also significantly improved compared to those of the gripper with full-length. Our soft robotic prototype exhibits a simple control and low-cost approach of gripping a wide range of objects and may have wide leverage for future industrial operations.
基金The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 51605131）, National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 11674354）, Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province, China （No. 1608085QE100）, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities （No. JZ2016HGTB0711）.
