Gabor Soter, A. Conn, H. Hauser, N. Lepora, J. Rossiter
{"title":"MultiTip: A multimodal mechano-thermal soft fingertip","authors":"Gabor Soter, A. Conn, H. Hauser, N. Lepora, J. Rossiter","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404926","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we present MultiTip, a novel multimodal mechano-thermal soft tactile fingertip. In comparison to previous multimodal sensing techniques, our device uses a single optical sensor to detect both mechanical deformation and temperature change simultaneously. Our fingertip is an improved version of the TacTip, a tactile fingertip that combines compliant materials and optical tracking to perform a variety of tasks such as object manipulation, contact and pressure sensing. However, temperature sensing, which is one of the last remaining challenges to mimic the full sensory capabilities of the human finger, has been neglected as a modality in optical tactile sensors. In this work we present a novel design and fabrication method for the skin of the TacTip that enables the device to simultaneously sense local temperature change while concurrently transducing the mechanical aspects of touch. This is achieved by creating a smart skin that changes its colour due to temperature change. MultiTip achieves multimodality without adding another sensing element and is therefore ideally suited to miniaturizing the sensor. We present the characteristics of the proposed sensor in sensing mechanical deformation and temperature at the same time. Finally, we demonstrate two possible real-world applications. MultiTip thus makes an important step towards full biomimicry of the human tactile fingertip.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124971177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Low profile stretch sensor for soft wearable robotics","authors":"S. Sareh, Y. Noh","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405372","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a low profile stretch sensor for integration into soft structures, robots and wearables. The sensor mechanism uses a single piece of highly flexible and light weight optical fibre and is based on the notion that bending an optical fibre modulates the intensity of the light transmitted through the fibre, a technique often referred as macrobending light loss. In this arrangement, the optical fibre originates from sensor's electronic unit, passes through a stretchable encasing structure in a macrobend pattern, and then loop back to the same unit resulting in a simplified electrical and optical design; the closed optical loop allows for no electronics at one end of the sensor making it safe for human robotics applications, and no optical interference with the external environment eliminating the need for complex conditioning circuitries. Of particular interest of the soft robotics community, the ability of this custom macrobend stretch sensor to flexibly adapt its configuration allows preserving the inherent softness and compliance of the robot which it is installed on. Our experimental results indicate that the optical fibre's bending radius is the dominant design parameter for sufficiently complex patterns, a finding that can facilitate generalisation of the sensing methods across different scales. The measurement performance of the mechanism and its impact on the stiffness of the encasing structure is benchmarked against a custom calibration and testing system.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114660838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hiroki Shigemune, Vito Cacucciolo, M. Cianchetti, H. Sawada, S. Hashimoto, C. Laschi
{"title":"Effect of base rotation on the controllability of a redundant soft robotic arm","authors":"Hiroki Shigemune, Vito Cacucciolo, M. Cianchetti, H. Sawada, S. Hashimoto, C. Laschi","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404944","url":null,"abstract":"Soft robotic arms have gained popularity in the recent years because of their dexterity, robustness and safe interaction with humans. However, since these arms are subject to non-linear mechanics and are intrinsically under-actuated, their control still present many challenges. Octopus arms are one of the most popular biological models for soft robotics. It is known that the octopus reaching movement consists in two steps: (1) the rotation of the arm's base towards the target, and (2) the extension of the arm to reach the target. From a robotics point of view, the rotation of the base adds one additional degree of freedom to an already hyper-redundant system. Therefore, its role in the effectiveness of the control is ambiguous. In this work, we investigate the role of the base rotation for learning an effective reaching strategy. We conduct numerical experiments based on a mathematical model of the mechanics of the octopus arm in water and a simple neural network enabling to encode the control strategy through optimization learning. The network node corresponding to the base rotation is switched on or off for comparison. We test the reaching success rate with and without base rotation with targets in various positions. The results show that the addition of the base rotation can be highly beneficial or even detrimental, based on the position of the target. Nonetheless, globally the addition of base rotation affects the control strategy and expand the reachable regions.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127597081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trajectory tracking of a one-DOF manipulator using multiple fishing line actuators by iterative learning control","authors":"Shu Ono, Ken Masuya, K. Takagi, K. Tahara","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405370","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, an iterative learning control scheme for a trajectory tracking task using a one-DOF joint manipulator which is driven by multiple antagonistic fishing line artificial muscle actuators is proposed. The fishing line actuator is one of the soft actuators made by coiling and heating a twisted polymer fiber. It has attracted attention from those who would develop soft robotic devices because it is soft, light, and low-cost. It, however, has several drawbacks, e.g. output force limitation, strong nonlinearity, or energy efficiency, etc. To cope with these drawbacks, firstly a one-DOF manipulator driven by multiple antagonistic actuators is proposed to enhance its output force, and the energy efficiency is analyzed to investigate the relationship between the energy consumption and a number of activated fishing line actuator. Next, an iterative learning control scheme to accomplish a trajectory tracking task by the one-DOF manipulator is proposed to improve its control performance even though under the existence of unknown nonlinearities. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated through several experiments.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116748209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michelle C. Yuen, Rebecca Kramer‐Bottiglio, J. Paik
{"title":"Strain sensor-embedded soft pneumatic actuators for extension and bending feedback","authors":"Michelle C. Yuen, Rebecca Kramer‐Bottiglio, J. Paik","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404920","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404920","url":null,"abstract":"For soft robots to leave the lab and enter unstructured environments, proprioception is required to understand how interactions in the field affect the soft structure. In this work, we present sensor-embedded soft pneumatic actuators (sSPA) that can observe both extension and bending. The sensors are strain sensitive capacitors, which are bonded to the interior of fiber-reinforced extension actuators on opposing faces. This construction allows extension and bending to be measured by calculating the mean and difference in sensor responses, respectively. The sSPAs are bonded together to form a flat fascicle to increase the force output and prevent buckling under load, and are robust to component failure by incorporating redundancy. In this paper, we discuss the fabrication of the sensors and their subsequent integration into the actuators. We also report the work capacity and sensor response of the sSPA fascicles under extension, bending, and the combination of both modes of deformation. The sensor-embedded soft pneumatic actuators presented here will advance the field of soft robotics by enabling closed-loop control of soft robots.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128076297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Follow the dummy: Measuring the influence of a biomimetic robotic fish-lure on the collective decisions of a zebrafish shoal inside a circular corridor","authors":"Frank Bonnet, J. Halloy, F. Mondada","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405376","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405376","url":null,"abstract":"Robotic agents that are accepted by animals as conspecifics are very powerful tools in behavioral biology because of the ways they help in studying social interactions in gregarious animals. In recent years, we have developed a biomimetic robotic fish lure for the purpose of studying the behavior of the zebrafish Danio rerio. In this paper, we present a series of experiments that were designed to assess the impact of some features of the lure regarding its acceptance among the fish. We developed an experimental setup composed of a circular corridor and a motorized rotating system able to steer the lure inside the corridor with a tunable linear speed. We used the fish swimming direction and distance between the fish and the lure as a metric to characterize the level of acceptance of the lure, depending on various parameters. The methodology presented and the experimental results are promising for the field of animal-robot interaction studies.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117114395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chamber dimension optimization of a bellow-type soft actuator for food material handling","authors":"Zhongkui Wang, S. Hirai","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404949","url":null,"abstract":"Soft robots demonstrate interesting possibilities of handling fragile and highly deformable objects without complex and accurate control. So far, the design of soft robots mostly rely on designer's intuition and trail-and-error method which is not efficient and therefore hinders the wide applications of soft robots. In this paper, we presented a way to investigate the optimal chamber design of a bellow-type soft actuator using Abaqus and Isight software. The finite element (FE) model of the actuator was developed in Abaqus with two design variables. The model was then imported into Isight and two objective functions of maximizing bending deformation and contact force were implemented. The optimal parameters were found to be at the boundaries of the predetermined parameter sets. Four kinds of actuators, having parameters of the initial guesses, optimal values, and two other optional sets, were fabricated and experimentally tested. Good agreements were achieved. Two-fingered grippers were constructed using different actuators and grasping tests were performed on defrozen broccolis. Results showed that using the optimized actuators required less air pressure to handle the same targets.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"200 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114967899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Sadati, S. E. Naghibi, K. Althoefer, T. Nanayakkara, S. Sadati
{"title":"Toward a low hysteresis helical scale Jamming interface inspired by teleost fish scale morphology and arrangement","authors":"S. Sadati, S. E. Naghibi, K. Althoefer, T. Nanayakkara, S. Sadati","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405368","url":null,"abstract":"Inspired by teleost fish scale, this paper investigates the possibility of implementing stiffness control as a new source of robots dexterity and flexibility control. Guessing about the possibility of biological scale jamming in real fish, we try to understand the possible underlying actuation mechanism of such behavior by conducting experiments on a Cyprinus carpio fish skin sample. Bulking tests are carried out on an encapsulated skin sample, in thin latex rubber, for unjammed and vacuum jammed cases. For the first time, we observed biological scale jamming with very small hysteresis due to the unique scale morphology and jammed stacking formation. We call this unique feature “Geometrical Jamming” where the resisting force is due to the stacking formation rather than the interlocking friction force. Inspiring by this unique morphology and helical arrangement of the scale, in this research, we investigate different possible design and actuation mechanisms for an integrable scale jamming interface for stiffness control of continuum manipulators. A set of curved scales are 3D printed which maintain a helix formation when are kept in place and jammed with two thin fishing steel wires. The non-self locking jagged contact surfaces replicate inclined stacking formation of the jammed fish scale resulting in the same reversible low hysteresis characteristics, in contrast to the available interlocking designs. The effectiveness of the designs are shown for uniaxial elongation experiments and the results are compared with similar research. The contact surfaces, in our design, can be lubricated for further hysteresis reduction to achieve smooth, repeatable and accurate stiffness control in dynamic tasks.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125858331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Donatelli, Sarah A. Bradner, Juanita Mathews, Erin Sanders, Casey Culligan, D. Kaplan, E. Tytell
{"title":"Prototype of a fish inspired swimming silk robot","authors":"C. Donatelli, Sarah A. Bradner, Juanita Mathews, Erin Sanders, Casey Culligan, D. Kaplan, E. Tytell","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404897","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404897","url":null,"abstract":"Elongate fishes have evolved hundreds of times throughout the tree of life. They occupy many aquatic environments, from streams and ponds to the deepest parts of the ocean. Due to their long body and numerous vertebrae, they are also highly flexible animals, which makes them useful as bioinspiration for designs in the field of soft robotics. We present a biodegradable soft robot prototype, inspired by elongate fishes. The robot's body is primarily composed of a silk hydrogel with embedded fibers to mimic the structure of natural fish skin. When actuated at the front, the flexible gel prototype mimics the undulatory gait of elongate fishes such as eels. Our goal is to use this prototype as a tool to understand the functional consequences of the fibers and other aspects of elongate body morphology in fishes, and to help develop robotic devices for exploring environments previously inaccessible to humans.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116476926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards creating a flexible shape senor for soft robots","authors":"Faisal Al Jaber, K. Althoefer","doi":"10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404906","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404906","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in robotics have witnessed an increasing transition from designing conventional robots with rigid components to partially or completely soft ones. Soft robots are known to be highly deformable and stretchable which makes the process of registering their shape and orientation in 3D challenging. This paper presents a first step of creating a flexible shape sensor for soft robots and a calibration algorithm that can compensate for different planar deflection conditions. In this paper, we describe the design and fabrication of the proposed shape sensor prototype utilizing three segmented optical fibers along the length of a flexible continuum arm. Three experimental scenarios of deflection are investigated to validate the relation between a mechanical deflection of the prototype and the change in intensity of the optical fibers' tip outputs (15 degrees deflection to the right and left, and planar double-bending). Camera images of the intensity circles without bending are used as a reference to relate the images features (location, angles, size, and intensity) to other bending cases. This study demonstrates the potential of relating the deflection status of a soft sensor to the image samples collected through a camera for the purpose of reconstructing and calibrating the shape sensor in 2D-space using MATLAB image processing toolbox and machine learning.","PeriodicalId":306255,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121704175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}