TY - GEN
T1 - A bidirectional soft pneumatic fabric-based actuator for grasping applications
AU - Low, J. H.
AU - Cheng, N.
AU - Khin, P. M.
AU - Thakor, N. V.
AU - Kukreja, S. L.
AU - Ren, H. L.
AU - Yeow, C. H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by R-719-000-009-597 (Office of Naval Research Global Grant). The first two authors contributed equally to this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017/12/13
Y1 - 2017/12/13
N2 - THIS paper presents the development of a bidirectional fabric-based soft pneumatic actuator requiring low fluid pressurization for actuation, which is incorporated into a soft robotic gripper to demonstrate its utility. The bidirectional soft fabric-based actuator is able to provide both flexion and extension. Fabrication of the fabric actuators is simple as compared to the steps involved in traditional silicone-based approach. In addition, the fabric actuators are able to generate comparably larger vertical grip resistive force at lower operating pressure than elastomeric actuators and 3D-printed actuators, being able to generate resistive grip force up to 20N at 120 kPa. Five of the bidirectional soft fabric-based actuators are deployed within a five-fingered soft robotic gripper, complete with five casings and a base. It is capable of grasping a variety of objects with maximum width or diameter closer to its bending curvature. A cutting task involved bimanual manipulation was demonstrated successfully with the gripper. To incorporate intelligent control for such a task, a soft force made completely of compliant material was attached to the gripper, which allows determination of whether the cutting task is completed. To the authors' knowledge, this work is the first study which incorporates two soft robotic grippers for bimanual manipulation with one of the grippers sensorized to provide closed loop control.
AB - THIS paper presents the development of a bidirectional fabric-based soft pneumatic actuator requiring low fluid pressurization for actuation, which is incorporated into a soft robotic gripper to demonstrate its utility. The bidirectional soft fabric-based actuator is able to provide both flexion and extension. Fabrication of the fabric actuators is simple as compared to the steps involved in traditional silicone-based approach. In addition, the fabric actuators are able to generate comparably larger vertical grip resistive force at lower operating pressure than elastomeric actuators and 3D-printed actuators, being able to generate resistive grip force up to 20N at 120 kPa. Five of the bidirectional soft fabric-based actuators are deployed within a five-fingered soft robotic gripper, complete with five casings and a base. It is capable of grasping a variety of objects with maximum width or diameter closer to its bending curvature. A cutting task involved bimanual manipulation was demonstrated successfully with the gripper. To incorporate intelligent control for such a task, a soft force made completely of compliant material was attached to the gripper, which allows determination of whether the cutting task is completed. To the authors' knowledge, this work is the first study which incorporates two soft robotic grippers for bimanual manipulation with one of the grippers sensorized to provide closed loop control.
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U2 - 10.1109/IROS.2017.8202290
DO - 10.1109/IROS.2017.8202290
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85041942867
T3 - IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
SP - 1180
EP - 1186
BT - IROS 2017 - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2017
Y2 - 24 September 2017 through 28 September 2017
ER -