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Design and locomotion analysis of modular soft robot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

Zhaoyu Liu ,
Yuxuan Wang Open the ORCID record for Yuxuan Wang [Opens in a new window] ,
Jiangbei Wang  and
Yanqiong Fei Open the ORCID record for Yanqiong Fei [Opens in a new window]
Zhaoyu Liu
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Robotics, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai200240, China
Yuxuan Wang
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Robotics, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai200240, China
Jiangbei Wang
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Robotics, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai200240, China
Yanqiong Fei*
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Robotics, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai200240, China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: fyq_sjtu@163.com
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Abstract

In the paper, a novel modular soft robot that can crawl and turn is presented. The modular soft robot is composed of multiple drive modules connected in series, including one head module, one tail module and three body modules. Each module is actuated by the air chamber. Due to the nonlinear performance of the air chamber, the strain energy function of the air chamber is established. The relationship between the displacement of the air chamber expansion wall and the inflation pressure is obtained, and the manufacturing parameters of the air chamber are determined. By dividing the body of the robot into a series of continuous flexible models, the driving force and the friction force of the robot in locomotion are analyzed. An inflation and deflation control method is presented to complete the locomotion. According to the experiment, the crawling speed of the robot can reach 15.53 mm/s (0.03 body length per second). The turning speed of the robot can reach 1.273 °/s. The robot can crawl and turn on the rough blanket surface effectively. The robot can explore and move in a complex and changeable environment.

Keywords

soft robotmodular designlocomotion analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 40 , Issue 11 , November 2022 , pp. 3995 - 4010
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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