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Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction
Inflatables are safe and lightweight structures even at the human scale. Inflatable robots are expected to be applied to physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Although active joint mechanisms are essential for developing inflatable robots, the existing mechanisms are complex in structure and it i...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8421686/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34504872 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.720683 |
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author | Niiyama, Ryuma Seong, Young ah Kawahara, Yoshihiro Kuniyoshi, Yasuo |
author_facet | Niiyama, Ryuma Seong, Young ah Kawahara, Yoshihiro Kuniyoshi, Yasuo |
author_sort | Niiyama, Ryuma |
collection | PubMed |
description | Inflatables are safe and lightweight structures even at the human scale. Inflatable robots are expected to be applied to physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Although active joint mechanisms are essential for developing inflatable robots, the existing mechanisms are complex in structure and it is difficult to integrate actuators, which diminish the advantages of inflatables. This study proposes blower-powered soft inflatable joints that are easy to fabricate and contain enough space for an actuation inside. The joints are driven by tendon wires pulled by linear actuators. We derived a theoretical model for both unilateral and bilateral joints and demonstrated a hugging robot with multiple joints as an application of the proposed joint mechanism. The novelty of the proposed joint mechanism and the inflatable robot is that rigid parts have been thoroughly eliminated and the tendons for actuation have been successfully hidden inside. Moreover, the active control of the internal pressure makes inflatables resistant to punctures. We expect that the contact safety of inflatable robots will facilitate advancement of the pHRI field. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8421686 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84216862021-09-08 Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction Niiyama, Ryuma Seong, Young ah Kawahara, Yoshihiro Kuniyoshi, Yasuo Front Robot AI Robotics and AI Inflatables are safe and lightweight structures even at the human scale. Inflatable robots are expected to be applied to physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Although active joint mechanisms are essential for developing inflatable robots, the existing mechanisms are complex in structure and it is difficult to integrate actuators, which diminish the advantages of inflatables. This study proposes blower-powered soft inflatable joints that are easy to fabricate and contain enough space for an actuation inside. The joints are driven by tendon wires pulled by linear actuators. We derived a theoretical model for both unilateral and bilateral joints and demonstrated a hugging robot with multiple joints as an application of the proposed joint mechanism. The novelty of the proposed joint mechanism and the inflatable robot is that rigid parts have been thoroughly eliminated and the tendons for actuation have been successfully hidden inside. Moreover, the active control of the internal pressure makes inflatables resistant to punctures. We expect that the contact safety of inflatable robots will facilitate advancement of the pHRI field. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-08-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8421686/ /pubmed/34504872 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.720683 Text en Copyright © 2021 Niiyama, Seong, Kawahara and Kuniyoshi. https://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 Niiyama, Ryuma Seong, Young ah Kawahara, Yoshihiro Kuniyoshi, Yasuo Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction |
title | Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction |
title_full | Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction |
title_fullStr | Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction |
title_full_unstemmed | Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction |
title_short | Blower-Powered Soft Inflatable Joints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction |
title_sort | blower-powered soft inflatable joints for physical human-robot interaction |
topic | Robotics and AI |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8421686/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34504872 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.720683 |
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