Cargando…

RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following

Soft robots have the potential to diminish the need for humans to venture into unsuitable environments or work in extreme conditions. While their soft nature gives them the advantage of being adaptable to changing environments, their control can be challenging because of the compliance that makes th...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chen, Hsing-Yu, Diteesawat, Richard Suphapol, Haynes, Alice, Partridge, Alixander James, Simons, Melanie Florine, Werner, Enrico, Garrad, Martin, Rossiter, Jonathan, Conn, Andrew T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7805893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33501067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00052
_version_ 1783636406100295680
author Chen, Hsing-Yu
Diteesawat, Richard Suphapol
Haynes, Alice
Partridge, Alixander James
Simons, Melanie Florine
Werner, Enrico
Garrad, Martin
Rossiter, Jonathan
Conn, Andrew T.
author_facet Chen, Hsing-Yu
Diteesawat, Richard Suphapol
Haynes, Alice
Partridge, Alixander James
Simons, Melanie Florine
Werner, Enrico
Garrad, Martin
Rossiter, Jonathan
Conn, Andrew T.
author_sort Chen, Hsing-Yu
collection PubMed
description Soft robots have the potential to diminish the need for humans to venture into unsuitable environments or work in extreme conditions. While their soft nature gives them the advantage of being adaptable to changing environments, their control can be challenging because of the compliance that makes them effective. In this paper we present RUBIC: the Rolling, Untethered, Ballooning, Intelligent Cube, that overcomes some of the difficulties of 2D control by constraining motion to a discretised Cartesian space. RUBIC's method of locomotion is by rolling from one face of the cube to another, in any one of four directions. This motion causes it to move within a 2D grid structure, the dimensions of which are defined by the cube's characteristic length. When in its resting position RUBIC is inherently stable and forms a safe platform for tasks including taking measurements and soil samples, for localization and ad hoc network infrastructure, and as the foundation for larger robots and structures. We present the design of RUBIC's body, the four pneumatic ballooning actuators per face that generate its unique gait, and the control systems for locomotion and obstacle climbing. We consider constraints imposed by the design and fabrication methods including physical dimension and weight, material properties and control fidelity. An alternative locomotion scheme is proposed to improve the speed and linearity which also increases the distance traveled per roll. RUBIC travels with a mean locomotion accuracy of 4.58° deviation and successfully traverses steps up to 35% of its own height. The discretisation of a soft robotics workspace, as demonstrated by RUBIC, has advantages for safe and predictable locomotion and has applications in both structured and hazardous environments.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7805893
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-78058932021-01-25 RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following Chen, Hsing-Yu Diteesawat, Richard Suphapol Haynes, Alice Partridge, Alixander James Simons, Melanie Florine Werner, Enrico Garrad, Martin Rossiter, Jonathan Conn, Andrew T. Front Robot AI Robotics and AI Soft robots have the potential to diminish the need for humans to venture into unsuitable environments or work in extreme conditions. While their soft nature gives them the advantage of being adaptable to changing environments, their control can be challenging because of the compliance that makes them effective. In this paper we present RUBIC: the Rolling, Untethered, Ballooning, Intelligent Cube, that overcomes some of the difficulties of 2D control by constraining motion to a discretised Cartesian space. RUBIC's method of locomotion is by rolling from one face of the cube to another, in any one of four directions. This motion causes it to move within a 2D grid structure, the dimensions of which are defined by the cube's characteristic length. When in its resting position RUBIC is inherently stable and forms a safe platform for tasks including taking measurements and soil samples, for localization and ad hoc network infrastructure, and as the foundation for larger robots and structures. We present the design of RUBIC's body, the four pneumatic ballooning actuators per face that generate its unique gait, and the control systems for locomotion and obstacle climbing. We consider constraints imposed by the design and fabrication methods including physical dimension and weight, material properties and control fidelity. An alternative locomotion scheme is proposed to improve the speed and linearity which also increases the distance traveled per roll. RUBIC travels with a mean locomotion accuracy of 4.58° deviation and successfully traverses steps up to 35% of its own height. The discretisation of a soft robotics workspace, as demonstrated by RUBIC, has advantages for safe and predictable locomotion and has applications in both structured and hazardous environments. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7805893/ /pubmed/33501067 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00052 Text en Copyright © 2019 Chen, Diteesawat, Haynes, Partridge, Simons, Werner, Garrad, Rossiter and Conn. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Robotics and AI
Chen, Hsing-Yu
Diteesawat, Richard Suphapol
Haynes, Alice
Partridge, Alixander James
Simons, Melanie Florine
Werner, Enrico
Garrad, Martin
Rossiter, Jonathan
Conn, Andrew T.
RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following
title RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following
title_full RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following
title_fullStr RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following
title_full_unstemmed RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following
title_short RUBIC: An Untethered Soft Robot With Discrete Path Following
title_sort rubic: an untethered soft robot with discrete path following
topic Robotics and AI
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7805893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33501067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00052
work_keys_str_mv AT chenhsingyu rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT diteesawatrichardsuphapol rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT haynesalice rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT partridgealixanderjames rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT simonsmelanieflorine rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT wernerenrico rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT garradmartin rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT rossiterjonathan rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing
AT connandrewt rubicanuntetheredsoftrobotwithdiscretepathfollowing