A spatial soft module actuated by SMA coil

Abstract

Slim soft robot, as same as slim animals, has great environmental adaptability on the basis of its flexible body and pliant motion. This paper presents a spatial soft module (abbr. SSM), which is able to form into different kinds slim soft robots. Bio-inspired by longitudinal muscle of slim animals, SMA coil is chosen to actuate SSM. For heating SMA coil, a compact PCB board which providing accuracy is assembled on the two ends of a backbone-like elastic rod. Since SSM is an independent module, MCU control system and IMU sensor are integrated onto the PCB board as well, with PID controller and special kinematics programming interface. The special kinematics of SSM is modeled for pose control. In the end, experiments are setup to verify the high deformation precision and measure the achieved bearing capacity, that is more than twice its dead weight.