Fluidical bending actuator designed for soft octopus robot tentacle

Jan Fras, Mateusz MacIas, Yohan Noh, Kaspar Althoefer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference paperpeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Soft actuation, due to its mechanical properties offer a complex motion that is not achievable for traditional mechanism. Thanks to that property it is often considered for bio-mimicking devices as many leaving creatures move by complex and distributed deformation. In this paper we propose a novel soft fluidical actuator designed to be used as a biomimicking tentacle in swimming octopus robot. The actuator has two degrees of freedom that enables bending in some range of directions and inherits the actuation effectiveness of single degree of freedom actuators while still able to control two of them. The actuator has been tested in terms of generated forces and motion capabilities and shows significant improvement regarding the state of the art actuators capable of completing the assumed task. The actuator enables the octopus robot to advance forward, change swimming directions and rotate around its primary axis. The paper presents the design, fabrication process and experimental verification of the proposed solution.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2018
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages253-257
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781538645161
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jul 2018
Event1st IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2018 - Livorno, Italy
Duration: 24 Apr 201828 Apr 2018

Conference

Conference1st IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2018
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityLivorno
Period24/04/201828/04/2018

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