TY - JOUR
T1 - Fluidic Multichambered Actuator and Multiaxis Intrinsic Force Sensing
AU - Malas, Dionysios
AU - Zhang, Guokai
AU - Wang, Shuai
AU - Huang, Wei
AU - Lindenroth, Lukas
AU - Yang, Bingyu
AU - Xia, Wenfeng
AU - Liu, Hongbin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
PY - 2024/7/30
Y1 - 2024/7/30
N2 - Soft robots have morphological characteristics that make them preferred candidates, over their traditionally rigid counterparts, for executing physical interaction tasks with the environment. Therefore, equipping them with force sensing is essential for ensuring safety, enhancing their controllability, and adding autonomy. At the same time, it is necessary to preserve their inherent flexibility when integrating sensory units. Soft-fluidic actuators (SFAs) with hydraulic actuation address some of the challenges posed by the compressibility of pneumatic actuation while maintaining system compliance. This research further investigates the feasibility of utilizing the incompressible actuation fluid as the means of actuation and of multiaxial sensing. We have developed a hyperelastic model for the actuation pressure, acting as a baseline pressure. Any disparities from the baseline have been mapped to external forces, using the principle of pressure-based fluidic soft sensor. Computed tomography imaging has been used to examine inner deformation and validate the analytically derived actuation-pressure model. The induced stresses within the SFA are examined using COMSOL simulations, contributing to the development of a calibration algorithm, which accounts for geometric and cross-sectional nonlinearities and maps pressure variations with tip forces. Two force types (concentrated and distributed) acting on our SFA under different configurations are examined, using two experimental setups described as "Point Load" and "Distributed Force." The force sensing algorithm achieves high accuracy with a maximum absolute error of 0.32N for forces with a magnitude of up to 6N.
AB - Soft robots have morphological characteristics that make them preferred candidates, over their traditionally rigid counterparts, for executing physical interaction tasks with the environment. Therefore, equipping them with force sensing is essential for ensuring safety, enhancing their controllability, and adding autonomy. At the same time, it is necessary to preserve their inherent flexibility when integrating sensory units. Soft-fluidic actuators (SFAs) with hydraulic actuation address some of the challenges posed by the compressibility of pneumatic actuation while maintaining system compliance. This research further investigates the feasibility of utilizing the incompressible actuation fluid as the means of actuation and of multiaxial sensing. We have developed a hyperelastic model for the actuation pressure, acting as a baseline pressure. Any disparities from the baseline have been mapped to external forces, using the principle of pressure-based fluidic soft sensor. Computed tomography imaging has been used to examine inner deformation and validate the analytically derived actuation-pressure model. The induced stresses within the SFA are examined using COMSOL simulations, contributing to the development of a calibration algorithm, which accounts for geometric and cross-sectional nonlinearities and maps pressure variations with tip forces. Two force types (concentrated and distributed) acting on our SFA under different configurations are examined, using two experimental setups described as "Point Load" and "Distributed Force." The force sensing algorithm achieves high accuracy with a maximum absolute error of 0.32N for forces with a magnitude of up to 6N.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85200130060&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/soro.2023.0242
DO - 10.1089/soro.2023.0242
M3 - Article
C2 - 39078805
SN - 2169-5172
VL - 12
JO - Soft Robotics
JF - Soft Robotics
IS - 1
ER -