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![Earthworm Locomotion Mechanism (adapted from [8])](profile/Yudong-Luo-3/publication/304414778/figure/fig1/AS:973815047798785@1609187008329/Earthworm-Locomotion-Mechanism-adapted-from-8.jpg)
![Fig. 2 Earthworm Locomotion Mechanism (adapted from [8])](profile/Yudong-Luo-3/publication/304414778/figure/fig1/AS:973815047798785@1609187008329/Earthworm-Locomotion-Mechanism-adapted-from-8_Q320.jpg)
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... has its own discrete fluid-filled coelomic compartment. Coordinated contractions of circular and longitudinal muscles among adjacent segments generate muscular waves for locomotion. Setae (bristles) extend or retract as segment diameter changes. Secretions of coelomic fluid lubricate the worm's epidermis as it burrows [7], as illustrated in Fig. 2. ...
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... sensed by the driver board and acquired by USB 1208-IS-4AO DAQ board to PC. The laser sensor is used to monitor the horizontal motion displacement of scissor lift structure actuated by IPMCs. The IPMCs are driven with the square waveforms which have 180 degree phase shift. The IPMC driver worked in current mode and the max current value is 800mA. Fig. 20 plots input voltage, voltage and current on one of the IPMCs, and measured horizontal motion displacement of scissor lift structure actuated by IPMCs. Experimental results validate the actuation and motion performance of the designed IPMC-scissor-lift 2D actuation structure. Ongoing work includes testing and controlling (1) a full ...
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... realizing the contraction function (Takahashi et al., 1995). In particular, the scissor structure can perfectly combine the axial shortening and longitudinal elongation together (Niu et al., 2015) to complete the simulation of longitudinal and circular muscles with a single structure. To alter the linear forward motion (Nakamura et al., 2006) into a controllable angle steering motion (Nakamura and Iwanaga, 2008;Omori et al., 2008), the linear servo motor can be replaced with an angular servo motor as shown in Figure 11A. ...
Currently, soft robotics technologies are creating the means of robotic abilities and are required for the development of biomimetic robotics. In recent years, earthworm-inspired soft robot has garnered increasing attention as a major branch of bionic robots. The major studies on earthworm-inspired soft robots focuses on the deformation of the earthworm body segment. Consequently, various actuation methods have been proposed to conduct the expansion and contraction of the robot’s segments for locomotion simulation. This review article aims to act as a reference guide for researchers interested in the field of earthworm-inspired soft robot, and to present the current state of research, summarize current design innovations, compare the advantages and disadvantages of different actuation methods with the purpose of inspiring future innovative orientations for researchers. Herein, earthworm-inspired soft robots are classified into single- and multi-segment types, and the characteristics of various actuation methods are introduced and compared according to the number of matching segments. Moreover, various promising application instances of the different actuation methods are detailed along with their main features. Finally, motion performances of the robots are compared by two normalized metrics-speed compared by body length and speed compared by body diameter, and future developments in this research direction are presented.
... The snake-like underwater robot could move by changing the driven voltages of each Ionic Conducting Polymer Film (ICPF) actuator [50]. Shown in Figure 4d, Niu et al. developed a high performance IPMC actuator and combined it with expendable lift-scissor structures to design an earthwormlike soft robot [51]. Liu et al. proposed an ionic electroactive polymer (PAST-iEAPs) with excellent tensile, electrochemical, and electromechanical properties, as well as good selfhealing ability, which could be well used in the future for the manufacture of soft robots and soft actuators [52]. ...
... (c) The design of the soft robot with a unidirectional DEA[48]. (d) an earthworm-like soft robot[51]. ...
The soft robot is a new type of robot with strong adaptability, good pliability, and high flexibility. Today, it is widely used in the fields of bioengineering, disaster rescue, industrial production, medical services, exploration, and surveying. In this paper, the typical driven methods, 3D printing technologies, applications, the existed problems, and the development prospects for soft robots are summarized comprehensively. Firstly, the driven methods and materials of the soft robot are introduced, including fluid driven, smart materials driven, chemical reaction driven, a twisted and coiled polymer actuator, and so on. Secondly, the basic principles and characteristics of mainstream 3D printing technologies for soft materials are introduced, including FDM, DIW, IP, SLA, SLS, and so on. Then, current applications of soft robots, such as bionic structures, gripping operations, and medical rehabilitation are described. Finally, the problems existing in the development of soft robots, such as the shortage of 3D printable soft materials, efficient and effective manufacturing of soft robots, shortage of smart soft materials, efficient use of energy, the realization of complex motion forms of soft robot, control action accuracy and actual kinematic modeling are summarized. Based on the above, some suggestions are put forward pertinently, and the future development and applications of the soft robot are prospected.
... As the interest in ad-hoc construction increases, future developments will relate to aerial 3D printing and curing of smart building materials. Construction related to burrowing and digging highlights PAI methods inspired by plant roots [149] and soft bodied digging animals, like earthworms, that perform growing and digging at the same time [150,151]. ...
In recent years, there has been a lot more attention towards the utilization of physically intelligent features in robotics. In this work, we provide a perspective on the physical artificial intelligence (PAI) paradigm and its impact on the conceptualization, design, and manufacturing of current and future aerial robots and infrastructure. We highlight the theory, enabling technologies, system features, and the tasks that the PAI paradigm will improve beyond the current approaches with conventional rigid aerial robots. We also discuss the multi-disciplinary effort required to collaborate with and educate researchers in the development of physically intelligent robots. PAI promises to lead the development of a new era of robust flying robotic organisms that are capable of adapting to and performing multi-functional tasks autonomously in a complex and unstructured environment. Aerial robotics is a great field of study to validate PAI as a development methodology.
... Prior work has explored expandable structures constructed with various materials, Frontiers in Robotics and AI | www.frontiersin.org April 2022 | Volume 9 | Article 719639 6 including metal (Shikari and Asada, 2018), ionic polymer-metal composite (Niu et al., 2015), soft silicon (Takei et al., 2011a), latex (Stevenson et al., 2010), plastics (Sedal et al., 2020), and other soft materials. Other promising materials that have yet to be extensively explored for expandable structures integrated with robots include wire structures, wood, and linen. ...
In this paper, we survey the emerging design space of expandable structures in robotics, with a focus on how such structures may improve human-robot interactions. We detail various implementation considerations for researchers seeking to integrate such structures in their own work and describe how expandable structures may lead to novel forms of interaction for a variety of different robots and applications, including structures that enable robots to alter their form to augment or gain entirely new capabilities, such as enhancing manipulation or navigation, structures that improve robot safety, structures that enable new forms of communication, and structures for robot swarms that enable the swarm to change shape both individually and collectively. To illustrate how these considerations may be operationalized, we also present three case studies from our own research in expandable structure robots, sharing our design process and our findings regarding how such structures enable robots to produce novel behaviors that may capture human attention, convey information, mimic emotion, and provide new types of dynamic affordances.
... These include soft robots with soft, stretchable, and deformable materials enabling infinite degrees of freedom. [1] For example, by imitating the simple locomotion patterns of worms [2,3] belonging to the phylum of arthropods [4] and annelids, [5] researchers have demonstrated the potential of using robots in constrained environments such as moving through a narrow hole. Such imitations of movements raise the hope that with further advances it will be possible to enable autonomous soft robots to conduct complex tasks such as grasping and controlled manipulation of objects. ...
Stimulus-responsive soft structures, with biological organs like intrinsic sensing, are needed to enable controlled movements and hence bring the transformative advances in soft robotics. Herein, bioinspired inchworm- and earthworm-like soft structures with intrinsic strain sensing achieved by seamless embedding of a graphite-paste-based sensor material are presented. The developed strain sensor exhibits a record stretchability (900%) and sensitivity (of 10³ up to ≈200 and of the order of 10⁵ at around 700% linear strain). With tiny permanent magnets incorporated at the ends of these soft structures, the sensory-feedback-based controlled movements of magnetically driven inchworm- and earthworm-like soft robots are also demonstrated. The presented results potentially boost the prospects of self-sensing in soft robots and advance the field toward cognitive soft robotics.
... Indeed, these complex mechanisms often require multiple independently controlled actuators in order to contract the robot body segments longitudinally as well as circumferentially. Examples of these independent actuation mechanisms include but are not limited to the lead-screw pantograph-type mechanisms [1], lead-screwactuated segments [2], servo-crank mechanisms [11], motordriven radial anchors and longitudinal extenders in robotic inchworms [6], which are used for biomedical applications, and the ionic polymer-metal composites [12]. ...
This paper presents an innovative robotic mechanism for generating peristaltic motion for robotic locomotion systems. The designed underactuated peristaltic robot utilizes aminimum amount of electromechanical hardware. Such a minimal electromechanical design not only reduces the number of potential failure modes but also provides the robot design with great potential for scaling to larger and smaller applications.We performed several speed and force generation tests atop a variety of granular media. Our experiments show the effective design of robot mechanism where the robot can travel with asmall input power (1.14W) at 6.0 mm/sec with 2.45 N force atop sand.
... To overcome the disadvantages of rigid annelidlike robots and to impart to them the soft features of annelids, robotic engineers have been inspired to incorporate soft technologies into their designs [9][10][11][12]. One of the greatest challenges in this endeavor is developing soft actuators to replace drive gears, servo motors, and linkages, which will grant the annelid-like soft robots' better adaptability in an unstructured environment. ...
The annelid, which consists of several identical segments, exploits its soft structures to move effectively in complex natural environments. Elongation and shortening of different segments produce a reverse peristaltic wave while retractable setae generate a variable friction, enabling bidirectional crawling locomotion. Although several designs have applied soft technologies towards the construction of annelid-like robots, these robots do not exhibit the homonymous segmentation, reverse peristaltic wave and variable friction. This paper reports the development of an annelid-like soft robot based on an improved dielectric elastomer (DE) minimum energy structure actuator to have these annelidan features. Each biomimetic segment of the robot is supported by a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) frame adhered to the DE actuator. The DE actuator induces segment elongation or shortening, which causes silica gel pads attached to the PET frame to contact or separate from the ground, producing a variable friction. The designed robot, whose identical segments conform to the homonymous segmentation, achieves forward or backward movement via the cooperative efforts of all the biomimetic segments. This cooperative movement, which produces the reverse peristaltic wave, strongly resembles that of natural annelidan locomotion. In addition, the Kinematic analysis of the robot is investigated. Experimental results confirm that the designed robot is capable of bidirectional and rapid locomotion. The robot can achieve a maximum velocity of 11.5 mm/s and a maximum velocity/mass ratio of 86.25 mm/(min·g). Compared to other existing annelid-like soft robots, this designed robot exhibits a superior average velocity, velocity/length ratio, body length/cycle, and velocity/mass ratio, and its performance affords the best approximation to that of the natural annelid.
... For example, there were an active capsule-like micro robot with 12 legs reported in [4], a padding based capsule robot with six deformable paddles demonstrated in [5], a track based capsule robot used as an alternative to wheel based robot due to the complex body environments presented in [6], and a spiral based robot that can move inside the intestinal track with minimum tissue damage described in [7]. Recently there were several soft animal locomotion inspired capsule-like systems being reported, including a capsule robot with inchworm-like locomotion capability that was driven by a micro motor [8], a magnetically actuated capsule-like endoscope that can switch the shapes between spherical and cylindrical forms [9], and several soft capsule-like robots made by smart materials like shape memory alloy (SMA) [10] and ionic polymermetal composite (IPMC) [11]. Although there were some interesting results on this type of robots and devices, most of these robots and devices still have some issues like high power consumption, low efficiency, inability to reverse or stop, difficulties on modeling and control, and inadaptability in complex environments. ...
... To generate the continuous peristaltic wave, earthworm body is formed of many, mostly identical body segments, which is also described detailed in our previous work [14]. Each segment has its own discrete fluid-filled coeliac compartment. ...
... Through the Pythagorean theorem we have the variable length r and b related with our control input angle θ s , which b = 2Q sin θs 2 and r = 2Q cos θs 2 . From our previous study [14], we know the relationship between the circular structure and out diameter, and we also know the inner diameter d is equal to out diameter minus two blue diagonals in Fig.4. So we can get the relationship between the inner diameter d and controlled control input angle θ s with the number of rhombus m used to form the circular structure, and π is in degree in all the equations: ...
... To generate the continuous peristaltic wave, earthworm body is formed of many, mostly identical body segments, which is also described detailed in our previous work [14]. Each segment has its own discrete fluid-filled coeliac compartment. ...
... Through the Pythagorean theorem we have the variable length r and b related with our control input angle θ s , which b = 2Q sin θs 2 and r = 2Q cos θs 2 . From our previous study [14], we know the relationship between the circular structure and out diameter, and we also know the inner diameter d is equal to out diameter minus two blue diagonals in Fig.4. So we can get the relationship between the inner diameter d and controlled control input angle θ s with the number of rhombus m used to form the circular structure, and π is in degree in all the equations: ...
