Design, kinematics, and controlling a novel soft robot arm with parallel motion

Al-Ibadi, A; Nefti-Meziani, S; Davis, ST

Abstract

This article presents a novel design for a double bend pneumatic muscle actuator (DB-PMA) inspired by snake lateral undulation. The presented actuator has the ability to bend in opposite directions from its two halves. This behavior results in horizontal and vertical movements of the actuator distal ends. The kinematics for the proposed actuator are illustrated and experiments conducted to validate its unique features. Furthermore, a continuum robot arm with the ability to move in parallel (horizontal displacement) is designed with a single DB-PMA and a two-finger soft gripper. The performance of the soft robot arm presented is explained, then another design of the horizontal motion continuum robot arm is proposed, using two self-bending contraction actuators (SBCA) in series to overcome the payload effects on the upper half of the soft arm.

Citation

Al-Ibadi, A., Nefti-Meziani, S., & Davis, S. (2018). Design, kinematics, and controlling a novel soft robot arm with parallel motion. Robotics, 7(2), 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics7020019

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 16, 2018
• Online Publication Date: May 17, 2018
• Publication Date: May 17, 2018
• Deposit Date: May 24, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: May 24, 2018
• Journal: Robotics
• Publisher: MDPI
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 19
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics7020019
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics7020019
• Related Public URLs: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics