91 results about "Soft actuator" patented technology

The application relates to a shape memory alloy soft driver control method based on data-driven modeling, which comprises the following steps: measuring and collecting input and output data of a shape memory alloy soft driver as sample data; designing an asymmetric activation function containing a hysteresis characteristic, constructing a neural network structure and selecting corresponding parameters, combining sample data and an improved gradient algorithm for iterative training, simultaneously introducing L1 regularization to generate a sparse model, and obtaining a soft driver theoretical model; inputting current soft driver corresponding input data into the soft driver theoretical model, outputting corresponding simulation output data, and controlling the soft driver according to the simulation output data. Compared with the prior art, the application adopts a neural network model, combines an improved nonlinear activation function and a gradient descent algorithm, improves the modeling accuracy and robustness of a hysteresis system, and effectively improves the subsequent control effect.

The invention provides a multi-modal motion asymmetric soft actuator and application thereof, and belongs to the technical field of soft robots. The present invention comprises: at least one bending chamber for converting air pressure energy into directional bending motion; the at least one torsion chamber and the bending chamber are physically separated to form an independent bending chamber and an independent torsion chamber, and the bending chamber and the torsion chamber are respectively connected with an independent gas circuit; an asymmetric structure is arranged in the torsion chamber and is used for directly converting air pressure energy into rotating torque around the central axis of the module; by independently controlling air pressure input of the torsion chamber and the bending chamber which are asymmetrically arranged, torsion and bending motion can be independently achieved in a single module. According to the invention, an asymmetric structure is adopted as a whole, independent driving chambers with special functions and physical isolation are integrated in a single module, a mode of indirectly synthesizing torsion through motion coupling of a plurality of symmetrical chambers is abandoned, torsion motion in a target direction is directly output, and a driving source and control logic are simplified.

The invention discloses an arthroscope with a variable viewing angle for orthopedic surgery, and relates to the technical field of medical instruments, the arthroscope comprises a control handle, the control handle is provided with an arthroscope body in a penetrating manner, the end part of the arthroscope body is provided with an auxiliary disc, the auxiliary disc is provided with an LED light source for auxiliary illumination, and the side of the LED light source is provided with a camera. According to the arthroscope with the variable visual angle for the orthopedic surgery, when a user needs to adjust the angle of a camera, the user only needs to rotate a rotary knob, so that a visual angle adjusting mechanism starts to operate, the internal pressure of a micro soft actuator is increased at the moment, and deformation and bending occur; the deformed and bent miniature soft actuator can synchronously drive the auxiliary disc to perform angle change, so that the camera is further adjusted, an operator can realize visual angle adjustment only by adjusting a knob, the operation of angle adjustment is simplified, the operation efficiency is improved, a wider visual field is provided for an operation, and the operation safety is improved. And the flexibility of surgical operation is improved.

The application discloses a kind of soft actuator viscoelastic behavior intelligent prediction method based on large language model, belong to soft robot control technical field.Method includes: pre-training stage, first explain the acquisition method of pre-training dataset, then show the memory decay network architecture and related mechanics constraint of self-constructing, finally expounds the method of embedding the viscoelastic constitutive model represented by memory decay network containing mechanics constraint into finite element calculation framework;Fine-tuning stage, first explain the acquisition method of fine-tuning dataset, then compare the performance of pre-training model on fine-tuning dataset, and fine-tune pre-training model parameters using intelligent algorithm;Reasoning stage, show the ability of fine-tuned model to predict the viscoelastic mechanical behavior of soft actuators under different complex working conditions and its generalization ability.The application can accurately predict the complex viscoelastic behavior of soft actuators under short-time and long-time action, and can ensure the prediction accuracy when considering the influence of gravity.

The invention discloses a corrugated pipe-shaped soft body actuator and a hand rehabilitation training device. The actuator comprises a hollow corrugated pipe section; the first connector pipe section is connected with one end of the hollow corrugated pipe section; the wave height of the hollow corrugated pipe section has the maximum value and the minimum value in the circumferential direction, and the maximum value is larger than the minimum value. The projections of the outer contour of the wave crest structure and the outer contour of the wave trough structure of the hollow corrugated pipe section in the axial direction are two closed curves which are eccentrically arranged; the axial section where the wave height maximum value of the hollow corrugated pipe section is located is not coplanar with the axial section where the wave height minimum value of the hollow corrugated pipe section is located. The corrugated-pipe-shaped soft body actuator can achieve combination of telescopic deformation and bending deformation of the actuator under the unconstrained condition, and when the corrugated-pipe-shaped soft body actuator is used as a hand rehabilitation training device, interphalangeal unfolding and finger bending and straightening can be combined.

The invention provides a manta ray-imitated soft robot driven by a flexible hydraulic valve and a movement method, and belongs to the field of soft robots. The manta ray-imitated soft robot comprises a flexible main body and manta ray-imitated soft drivers; manta ray imitating soft body drivers are arranged on the left side and the right side of the flexible body, each manta ray imitating soft body driver comprises an active deformation part and a passive deformation part, and the active deformation parts and the passive deformation parts are integrally manufactured in a pouring mode; a flexible hydraulic valve is arranged at the position, close to the head, of an inner cavity of the flexible body and comprises a valve shell, a hemispherical film is arranged below the valve shell, and a manta ray imitating soft driver connecting port and a water inlet are formed in the surface of the valve shell. The interior of the flexible hydraulic valve communicates with the active deformation part through the manta ray imitating soft driver connecting port. The state is continuously and repeatedly changed through a semispherical film in the flexible hydraulic valve, so that the manta ray imitating soft driver flaps up and down and backwards transmitted fluctuation drives the robot to move forwards.

The present application relates to a kind of variable stiffness fiber reinforced programmable soft actuator unit, including flexible matrix and controllable module, flexible matrix is pipeline-like, and controllable module is fixed on the outer layer of flexible matrix distribution;Controllable module uses single-layer module or the multi-layer module arranged inside and outside;Each layer of controllable module is wound by at least one variable stiffness fiber according to certain angle and direction;The control line of connection controllable module is distributed in the inner cavity of flexible matrix, and is connected with external control system;The two ends of the inner cavity of flexible matrix are blocked and leave medium filling and discharging mouth, and fluid medium is filled in the inner cavity;Controllable module state is two kinds of flexible state and rigid state, when carrying out the deformation control of soft actuator unit, by controlling part variable stiffness fiber to be rigid state, another part variable stiffness fiber is flexible state, realizes the deformation control of soft actuator unit.

The present invention discloses a rigid-flexible coupling clamp based on a bionic shrimp shell structure of a soft actuator, comprising: a front connecting sleeve, a middle connecting sleeve is sleeved on the side surface of the front connecting sleeve, the side surfaces of the front connecting sleeve and the middle connecting sleeve are both fixedly connected with a positive limiting shaft, the surface of the middle connecting sleeve is fixedly connected with a reverse limiting shaft, the positive limiting shaft and the inner wall of the reverse limiting shaft are hinged, and the multiple structural components in the device are used to inflate the soft actuator through the pneumatic connector when grasping the workpiece. The soft actuator extends during the inflation process and bends under the restriction of the external connecting sleeve to grasp the object. The protective structure formed by the external sleeve is used to fully protect the flexible components in the structure, thereby realizing the ability of the equipment to perform rigid-flexible coupling clamping.

The application discloses a frog tongue-imitating soft actuator and belongs to the field of soft robots, comprising a paper folding module, a connecting piece one and a movable block; two ends of the connecting piece one are fixedly connected with one movable block; the connecting piece one and the movable block are internally provided with a cavity one in communication; an electrostatic adsorption unit, comprising a positive electrode and a negative electrode; wherein the connecting piece one is fixedly installed with the electrostatic adsorption unit on one side close to each other; two electrostatic adsorption units are fixedly connected; compared with the prior art, the application utilizes the excellent unfolding / contraction ratio of double paper folding, the actuator body can realize larger unfolding movement under the premise of compact and light small volume, which is helpful for imitating the contraction and expansion activities of the chameleon tongue during the hunting process, and the front end of the actuator has the ability to operate / grasp fragile, light and planar objects through slight contact through the electrostatic adsorption structure.

The invention provides a pneumatic bionic finger integrated with a mixed-line-diameter fiber blocking variable-stiffness module, which belongs to the technical field of variable stiffness of soft robots and manipulators and comprises a rigid framework, a pneumatic driver, a one-way stretchable fabric layer, the mixed-line-diameter fiber blocking variable-stiffness module and a vacuum pipeline. The mixed-wire-diameter fiber blocking variable-stiffness modules are arranged in groove cavities of the rigid framework, are of negative pressure driving blocking structures, are arranged in a segmented mode in the length direction of the pneumatic bionic finger and are connected with a vacuum source through a vacuum pipeline; a pneumatic driver is arranged above the mixed-line-diameter fiber blocking variable-stiffness module, the pneumatic driver is a soft actuator driven by positive pressure, the pneumatic driver is connected with a positive-pressure gas circuit, the pneumatic driver and the vacuum pipeline are arranged independently, and a one-way stretchable fabric layer is arranged above the pneumatic driver. According to the method, the designable redistribution of the variable stiffness module performance is realized under the shape and filling constraint.

The invention discloses an intelligent soft actuator viscoelastic behavior prediction method based on a large language model, and belongs to the technical field of soft robot control. The method comprises the following steps: a pre-training stage: firstly explaining an acquisition method of a pre-training data set, then displaying an autonomously built memory attenuation network architecture and related mechanical constraints, and finally explaining a method for embedding a viscoelastic constitutive model represented by a memory attenuation network containing the mechanical constraints into a finite element calculation framework; in the fine tuning stage, firstly, an acquisition method of a fine tuning data set is explained, then the performance of the pre-training model on the fine tuning data set is compared, and parameters of the pre-training model are finely tuned by adopting an intelligent algorithm; in the reasoning stage, the ability of the fine tuning model to predict viscoelastic mechanical behaviors of the soft actuator under different complex working conditions and the generalization ability of the soft actuator are displayed. According to the method, the complex viscoelastic behavior of the soft actuator under the short-time and long-time action can be accurately predicted, and the prediction accuracy when the gravity influence is considered can be ensured.

The invention discloses a humidity-driven soft actuator and a preparation method thereof, the actuator takes a patterned black polyimide (PI) film as a substrate, and the substrate is compounded with two-dimensional transition metal carbide Ti3C2Tx (MXene) / amylopectin amp; a functional layer is formed by Amylose / carbon nanotubes (CNTs), when the functional layer absorbs moisture and expands, the actuator is bent towards the PI side, and when the functional layer is dehumidified and contracts, the actuator is bent reversely; the bending response direction is defined through the substrate gap direction of nanosecond laser machining, and the initial curvature and the bending degree are regulated and controlled through vacuum hot pressing treatment. The components cooperate to endow the actuator with rapid humidity response capability and excellent mechanical stability. The technical problems that an existing humidity driving actuator is poor in programmability and an interface is prone to stripping are solved, an external driving source is not needed, the technology is simple, convenient and controllable, and the potential application value in the fields of soft robots, flexible intelligent equipment and the like is shown.

The application discloses a kind of based on soft driver's lung profile one-way deformation control structure of soft robot of simulation lung, the circumferential of central fixed seat is evenly distributed with pneu-net soft driver connected by connector;Between each connector and central fixed seat, one bellows driver is fixedly connected;Trachea is communicated with pneu-net soft driver and bellows driver;Control structure is shown by the radial telescopic characteristics of the radial deformation of lung and the boundary curvature of lung quality of lung by the bending characteristics of the lung of the bellows driver and the pneu-net soft driver respectively by applying air pressure to bellows driver.It is effectively simulated by the driving mode of the above control structure pneumatics when the profile of lung one-way deformation, by multiple different structure parameters this kind of soft driver constitutes complete soft robot of simulation lung, on the basis of being able to accurately control model deformation, be applied to the deformation prediction of lung deformation and accurately predict lung tumor movement space.

The invention discloses a social robot based on pneumatic driving and an interaction system thereof. The social robot comprises a shell, a body software actuator, a head actuator, a hand reinforced fiber actuator, a sensing module and a sound module. According to the social robot, interaction state information between a user and the robot is obtained through the sensing module, the control and drive module can generate rhythm parameters according to the interaction state information, the body software actuator and the head actuator can generate deformation actions synchronous with respiratory rhythm according to the rhythm parameters, and meanwhile, the motion of the user is controlled to be more stable. The sound module can modulate the envelope and intensity of sound output according to the rhythm parameters, so that the tactile feedback and the auditory feedback are consistent in time, the tactile feedback, the sound feedback and the breathing mechanism are combined, in addition, the hand reinforcing fiber actuator can attract a user to interact with the robot, and the user experience is improved. In this way, the user can obtain stable, continuous and perceptible breathing experience without excessive active operation or continuous attention, and pressure can be better relieved for the user.

The invention provides a deformable variable-rigidity soft body driver, which comprises a soft body driving unit, a sealing outer film and a communicating piece, the soft body driving unit comprises a flexible substrate layer and at least one flexible scale layer superposed on the flexible substrate layer, and the contact surfaces of the flexible substrate layer and the flexible scale layer are provided with mutually matched preset surface configurations; the sealing outer film completely wraps and seals the soft driving unit through a flexible airtight material; the communicating piece is communicated with the soft body driving unit, and the closed space is in butt joint with an external negative pressure air source; a sensing sensor is arranged on the sealing outer film; and when negative pressure is applied to the closed space through the communicating piece, the preset surface configurations of the flexible substrate layer and the flexible scale layer are mutually engaged and locked, so that the whole soft driver deforms into a preset three-dimensional shape, and a rigid supporting structure is formed. Through integration of the soft driving unit, the sealing outer film and the communicating piece, the problem of system complexity caused by separation of variable stiffness and a shape driving module in the prior art is solved.

The application provides a design method of a soft grabbing robot, which comprises the following steps: firstly, different hybrid variable stiffness mechanisms are designed, and corresponding hybrid variable stiffness soft actuators are prepared; then, a pneumatic driving test platform and a variable stiffness performance test platform are built; then, the bending performance test and the stiffness test are performed on each hybrid variable stiffness soft actuator; finally, the bending performance and the variable stiffness capacity of the hybrid variable stiffness soft actuators are compared and analyzed, and the hybrid variable stiffness soft actuator with the best comprehensive performance is selected. Three different actuators are prepared, the pneumatic driving test platform and the variable stiffness performance test platform are built, and the bending performance test and the stiffness test are performed on the three prepared hybrid variable stiffness soft actuators, so that the bending performance and the variable stiffness performance are simultaneously considered.

The application provides a soft actuator and a surgical robot. The soft actuator comprises a photo-thermal optical fiber and a plurality of light sources, the photo-thermal optical fiber comprises: a cladding, a first core and at least one light absorption rod are embedded in the cladding, the first core is provided with a plurality of light filters corresponding to different wavelengths respectively, the material of the light absorption rod is a photo-thermal conversion material, and the refractive index of the first core is higher than that of the cladding; a first coating layer is coated on one side of the outer periphery of the cladding, and the thermal expansion coefficient of the first coating layer is higher than that of any one of the first core, the cladding and the light absorption rod; the first light filter is used for guiding a first light signal in the first core to the light absorption rod adjacent to the first light filter for photo-thermal conversion, so that a first target deformation occurs in the region of the first coating layer, wherein the first light filter is any one of the plurality of light filters, and the resonance wavelength of the first light filter and the cladding matches the first light signal. The application helps to realize multi-point local actuation.

This invention relates to the technical field of soft robots, and more specifically, to a soft finger with adjustable grasping force, a soft gripper, and a method for manufacturing the same. The soft finger includes a soft actuator and a fingertip. The soft actuator has a cavity, and the fingertip is fixedly mounted at one end of the soft actuator. The other end of the soft actuator has an air passage communicating with the cavity. The outer wall of the soft actuator has several protrusions, with grooves formed between adjacent protrusions. The inner wall of the soft actuator has a bendable and lockable first blocking structure, and the outer wall of the soft actuator has a retractable and lockable second blocking structure. The second blocking structure is wavy and can engage with the grooves on the outer wall of the soft actuator. The second blocking structure can cooperate with the first blocking structure to lock the soft actuator. This invention allows for pre-grasping by bending the soft finger, then fixing the fingertip position and adjusting the grasping force, making it suitable for non-damaging grasping of fragile items.

A shape-customizable pneumatic soft actuator and a soft robot. The pneumatic soft actuator comprises a pneumatic deformable member (1), an embedded rod structure and several shape customization members (4), wherein a cavity is formed in the pneumatic deformable member (1), and an external independent air source is in communication with the cavity in the pneumatic deformable member (1); the embedded rod structure is mounted at the bottom of the pneumatic deformable member (1), and comprises a base body (2) and a plurality of insertion rods (3), the base body (2) being provided with a plurality of first through holes, and the plurality of insertion rods (3) being respectively embedded into the plurality of first through holes in the base body (2); and the several shape customization members (4) are mounted on at least two insertion rods (3), so as to constrain the deformation of the pneumatic deformable member (1) and the base body (2), thereby completing different grasping or operating tasks. The shape of the pneumatic soft actuator is reconfigured by means of the shape customization members (4), such that the grabbing effect of a soft robot on different target objects can be improved; and by means of the coupling effect of a rigid-flexible structure, the load capacity of the soft robot can be improved.

The present invention discloses a soft actuator comprising an actuation layer and a pressure chamber. The actuation layer comprises a wrapping layer made of a deformable material, the interior of the wrapping layer forming a cavity-shaped structure, and the cavity containing an insulating liquid medium. The wrapping layer is a flat structure, with at least one pair of flexible electrodes bonded to two opposing flat surfaces of the wrapping layer. The pressure chamber is a cavity-shaped structure having at least one opening. The actuation layer is bonded to the opening of the pressure chamber, forming a sealed cavity with the pressure chamber, wherein a gas at a preset pressure is contained within the sealed cavity. The soft actuator disclosed by the present invention has a simple structure, is easy to prepare, and the selected materials are readily available. The manufactured soft actuator can be made into any desired shape, has strong adaptability, and has a fast response speed.

A soft pneumatic pulsating method for milking at least one teat of a plurality of livestock and a soft pneumatic pulsating device thereof are developed. The pulsating device comprises at least one soft pneumatic pulsating teat cup comprises at least two soft actuators, at least one separator ring, at least one pneumatic system, a self-healing polymer hydrogel, and a semi-liquid polymer gel. The soft pneumatic pulsating device is used in the dairy, livestock, and veterinary industries which cause a better and more stable performance compared to the conventional vacuum milking machines.

A soft haptic device and a local control method are disclosed. The soft haptic device includes a soft actuator. The soft actuator includes an electroactive polymer film, a patterned electrode, and a dielectric liquid injected between the electroactive polymer film and the patterned electrode. The soft actuator generates a reconfigurable shape such that a form of an output shape and a number of outputtable shapes are changed depending on the number of electrodes constituting the patterned electrode, a shape of the electrodes, and an arrangement of the electrodes.

The present application relates to the field of automatic control technology, and further relates to an adaptive thermal control radiator control method for a radio frequency microwave front end, comprising the following steps: registering a digital pre-distortion tap and an envelope tracking voltage rail as a soft actuator, and registering a controllable non-condensing gas plug heat pipe gas plug driving unit as a hard actuator; during continuous operation of a service waveform, a system controller performs the following closed-loop operation based on frame data collection within a control window of each service frame: within the control window, a synthesized baseband sequence, a rail voltage sequence and an operation sequence are respectively sent to a transmitting link, an envelope tracking power supply and a gas plug driving unit for execution. The present application can actively intervene before thermal stress is formed, quickly reduce the peak envelope ratio and output power through the soft actuator, reduce instantaneous power consumption from the signal domain, and simultaneously reconstruct a heat passage through the hard actuator to guide heat to an area with higher heat dissipation efficiency, thereby avoiding local overheating.

This invention discloses a method for preparing and applying a dynamic pH / light-responsive bilayer programmable hydrogel, belonging to the field of hydrogel materials technology. The purpose of this invention is to address the problems of existing hydrogel materials, such as single crosslinking structure, irreversible crosslinking, difficulty in simultaneously achieving mechanical and responsive properties, single response mode, and insufficient programmable controllability. The method involves: 1. Preparing a borate ester crosslinked PVA-B-O-PVA hydrogel; 2. Preparing a pH / light-responsive bilayer hydrogel. This hydrogel can achieve swelling regulation through reversible breaking and recombination of borate ester bonds under varying acidic and alkaline conditions. Under light irradiation, it achieves photochromism and deformation response through the SP / MC structural transformation of spiropyran molecules. Furthermore, it achieves bending, folding, and programmable motion behavior through the synergistic effect of different functional layers in the bilayer structure. It can be applied to flexible actuators, programmable soft actuators, and environmental response sensors in complex environments.

The invention relates to a flexible pneumatic rehabilitation glove and a design method thereof.The flexible pneumatic rehabilitation glove comprises a soft driver, a fingertip fixing assembly and an adjustable assembly which are arranged on a glove body, the soft driver comprises a thumb soft driver, an index finger soft driver, a middle finger soft driver, a ring finger soft driver and a little finger soft driver, and the thumb soft driver is of a two-section structure; the index finger soft driver, the middle finger soft driver, the ring finger soft driver and the little finger soft driver are of a three-section structure, adjustable assemblies are arranged among driving telescopic pipes of the two-section structure or the three-section structure, fingertip fixing assemblies are arranged at the front ends of the two-section structure or the three-section structure, and air hole connectors are formed in the rear ends of the two-section structure or the three-section structure. Based on structural bionic design, the driver of the rehabilitation glove can be adjusted along with the change of the size difference of the hand of an individual, man-machine compatibility is improved, and the bending performance of the driver is guaranteed by adjusting the driver to be aligned to finger joints.

The application discloses a kind of based on the iterative learning model predictive control method of gas-driven soft robot of Koopman, including steps: system initialization and initial model construction;Model predictive control calculation based on predictive model;System response acquisition and tracking error calculation;Input based on iterative learning control and model correction;Model updating and iterative predictive control execution.The above-mentioned method, model predictive control is combined with iterative learning mechanism, and a unified prediction modeling framework is constructed by introducing Koopman operator, so that the control method can gradually compensate control error and maintain stable predictive control performance in the repeated operation process under the condition of system model uncertainty and parameter time-varying, suitable for the control application of pneumatic soft actuator and related flexible robot system.

The invention provides a shape memory polymer-based bimodal deformation actuator, a preparation method and a control method, the shape memory polymer-based bimodal deformation actuator comprises an actuator main body made of a shape memory polymer Verocelar, the actuator main body is coated with a coating layer, and the actuator main body is connected with a rope through a plurality of rope knots sleeving the actuator main body, so that the shape memory polymer-based bimodal deformation actuator is formed. An electric heating element used for heating the actuator body is further arranged in the actuator body. The shape memory polymer is adopted as the main body material of the actuator, and the temperature regulation design of the embedded electric heating element is combined, so that the switching of two deformation modes of spiral and bending can be realized without modular assembly, and the problems of unstable interface and complicated manufacturing of the traditional multi-mode actuator are solved; under the two deformation modes, after the actuator is cooled to the room temperature, the modulus of the shape memory polymer rises, and the load capacity can reach 70 times of the self weight at most, so that the bearing capacity of the flexible actuator is improved, and the problem that an existing soft actuator is low in load capacity is solved.

This invention discloses an inflatable, jellyfish-inspired, entanglement-like gripper robot device, comprising a disc-shaped body, several helical soft actuators, a quick-connect air hose, and a drive control system. The helical soft actuators are connected to the quick-connect air hose via 3D-printed sealing connectors and are evenly distributed around the disc-shaped body, arranged in two groups: internal and external. Each actuator uses a highly elastic rubber tube as an expansion carrier, covered by a double-helical woven fiber mesh. Additional fibers are added in the helical direction outside the mesh, forming three sets of fiber-encircling constraint structures. The drive control system controls inflation and deflation via a controller, relays, and solenoid valves. This invention achieves helical winding deformation solely through air pressure, eliminating the need for complex sensors and algorithms. It can non-destructively grasp irregular, fragile, or high-speed targets. With its simple structure, good flexibility, and high modularity, it is suitable for aerospace, industrial sorting, and medical assistance fields.

The application provides a kind of soft gripper and manufacturing process of multi-mode crab, it is related to flexible manipulator field, in view of the poor flexibility and adaptability of current soft manipulator, install soft finger on main support plate to form manipulator, the soft actuator of soft finger includes finger actuator and fingertip actuator, the first clamping part is formed between different soft fingers, the second clamping part is formed between two fingertip actuators, the first clamping part can cope with the grabbing of larger volume target objects, the second clamping part can cope with the grabbing of smaller volume target objects, realize multi-mode grabbing operation ability, and the pressure value input by each lumen can be controlled by control tube, the bending degree of soft actuator is adjusted, accurate action is realized, flexibility and adaptability are improved.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide a surgical robot (10) deployed in a body lumen inside a human or animal subject, the robot comprising: an inflatable frame (12) having a folded state for delivery to a target site in the lumen and an inflated state in which the frame defines an open cavity (18); a manipulator (14) movable within the cavity for operating a medical device; and a soft actuator (16) operable by fluid pressure to move the manipulator (14) by applying force between the frame (12) and the manipulator, the frame (12) being positioned around the soft actuator (16) to provide protection between the soft actuator and the body lumen.