TY - GEN
T1 - A programmable mechanical freedom and variable stiffness soft actuator with low melting point alloy
AU - Hao, Yufei
AU - Wang, Tianmiao
AU - Wen, Li
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Soft robotic technologies have been widely used in the fields like bio-robotics, wearable devices, and industrial manipulations. However, existing soft robots usually require multiple pneumatic/fluidic channels for pressurizing soft material segments in series or in parallel to achieve multiple mechanical degrees of freedom. In this study, we demonstrated a soft actuator embedded with Low-Melting-Point Alloy (LMPA), with which the mechanical degrees and stiffness can be selectively controlled. The LMPA was embedded in the bottom of the actuator, with the Ni-Cr wires serpentining under different positions of the LMPA layer. Through a reheating- recrystallizing circle, the actuator can self-heal and recover from the crack state. The melting process of the LMPA under different currents and different sections, the variable stiffness, the self-healing properties, and the programmable mechanical freedom of the actuator was explored through experiments. The results showed that the LMPA could be melted about 10, s under the current of 0.7, A. With the LMPA, the bending force and the elasticity modulus of the actuator could be enhanced up to 16 times and 4,000 times separately. Moreover, up to six motion patterns could be achieved under the same air pressure inflated to a typical single-chamber soft actuator. The combination of Low-Melting-Point Alloy and the soft actuators may open up a diversity of applications for future soft robotics.
AB - Soft robotic technologies have been widely used in the fields like bio-robotics, wearable devices, and industrial manipulations. However, existing soft robots usually require multiple pneumatic/fluidic channels for pressurizing soft material segments in series or in parallel to achieve multiple mechanical degrees of freedom. In this study, we demonstrated a soft actuator embedded with Low-Melting-Point Alloy (LMPA), with which the mechanical degrees and stiffness can be selectively controlled. The LMPA was embedded in the bottom of the actuator, with the Ni-Cr wires serpentining under different positions of the LMPA layer. Through a reheating- recrystallizing circle, the actuator can self-heal and recover from the crack state. The melting process of the LMPA under different currents and different sections, the variable stiffness, the self-healing properties, and the programmable mechanical freedom of the actuator was explored through experiments. The results showed that the LMPA could be melted about 10, s under the current of 0.7, A. With the LMPA, the bending force and the elasticity modulus of the actuator could be enhanced up to 16 times and 4,000 times separately. Moreover, up to six motion patterns could be achieved under the same air pressure inflated to a typical single-chamber soft actuator. The combination of Low-Melting-Point Alloy and the soft actuators may open up a diversity of applications for future soft robotics.
KW - Low-Melting-Point alloy
KW - Programmable mechanical freedom
KW - Soft actuator
KW - Variable stiffness
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85028458442
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-65289-4_15
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-65289-4_15
M3 - 会议稿件
AN - SCOPUS:85028458442
SN - 9783319652887
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 151
EP - 161
BT - Intelligent Robotics and Applications - 10th International Conference, ICIRA 2017, Proceedings
A2 - Liu, Honghai
A2 - Huang, YongAn
A2 - Wu, Hao
A2 - Yin, Zhouping
PB - Springer Verlag
T2 - 10th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2017
Y2 - 16 August 2017 through 18 August 2017
ER -