Bioinspired design and fabrication principles of reliable fluidic soft actuation modules

Citation:

W. Tao, E. H. Skorina, F. Chen, J. McInnis, M. Luo, and C. D. Onal, “Bioinspired design and fabrication principles of reliable fluidic soft actuation modules,” in 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 2015.

Abstract:

Much of what is done in the field of robotics is in an effort to replicate what nature can already accomplish on a regular basis. One aspect that animals exploit to navigate their environments is soft structures. Soft structures and actuators allow for safe, flexible, and adaptive interactions with unpredictable environments. In particular we are inspired by snakes and jumping spiders. Snakes [1] are capable traversing complex, cluttered environments and squeeze through narrow spaces relative to their volume with ease. Jumping spiders [2] are capable of fast locomotion and prodigious jumps using pressurized liquid for actuation. To replicate the abilities of these animals, we use soft pneumatic actuators [3]–[8]. However, the soft structures of these actuators are fragile and prone to failure under repeated use. In addition, because of a lack of standardization in fabrication, the entire body will often have to be replaced when such a failure happens. In this paper, we seek to expand the capabilities of soft actuators by developing reliable, standardized multi-material fluidic soft actuation systems.