Reconfigurable robotic modules for rapid design iteration of soft robot applications
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Engineering
Abstract
Soft robotics is expected to provide significant impact in the future of human-friendly robotics applications such as wearable devices for elderly body support, rehabilitations, medical robots, and other service robot applications. However most of the robot components such as motors, sensors, and controllers exist only under the assumptions of rigid regime, and they are not desirable for unconventional soft systems. This project aims to establish a developmental framework of reconfigurable robotic modules that can significantly speed up the design iterations of soft robot applications. The reconfigurable robotic modules should be comparatively small and flexible, such that they can be quickly applied to many variations of soft mechatronics devices by employing rapid fabrication methods such as 3D Printing and silicon moulding. The modules should also be supported by a software library and/or middleware for rapid development of controllers. The developed framework will be used for the case study of developing dextrous robotic hands for manipulation of unknown/unstructured objects.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Fumiya Iida (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Kieran Gilday (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509620/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2022 | |||
| 2109088 | Studentship | EP/N509620/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/09/2022 | Kieran Gilday |
| Description | New techniques for the design and fabrication of soft robotics has been reported through multiple publications. Additionally, there have been key findings in the control of soft robots, particularly exploiting passive behaviours from intelligent design by driving interactions with the environment through wrist control. By supplementing existing soft robotic manipulators with this interaction-based wrist control, we are able to improve grasping performance, increase the diversity of applications and reduce computational expense. |
| Exploitation Route | Both the design methodology of soft anthropomorphic robotic hands and control supplementation through wrist action can be explored further. For the design of hands themselves, there is still much work on optimising structures, materials and actuation methods. There are additional limitations to the control methods which currently rely on direct programming by an experienced user, so steps towards a fully-automated, intelligent controller able to exploit the full range of soft hand interactions is key. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |