96 results about "Soft actuator" patented technology

A soft robotic device with one or more sensors is described. The sensor may be embedded in the soft body of the soft robotic device, attached to the soft body of the soft robotic device, or otherwise linked to the soft body of the soft robotic device.

A biomimetic actuation device includes a flexible substrate, conformable for disposition about an object, defining an apex and a base, bearing at least one soft actuator configured to change state from a first state to a second state upon introduction of a pressurized fluid to an internal volume of the at least one soft actuator.

A hub assembly for coupling different grasper assemblies including a soft actuator in various configurations to a mechanical robotic components are described. Further described are soft actuators having various reinforcement. Further described are and soft actuators having electroadhesive pads for improved grip, and/or embedded electromagnets for interacting with complementary surfaces on the object being gripped. Still further described are soft actuators having reinforcement mechanisms for reducing or eliminating bowing in a strain limiting layer, or for reinforcing accordion troughs in the soft actuator body.

The invention belongs to the technical field of soft robots and relates to a similar round stepped type soft hand paw. The soft hand paw comprises soft actuators, a base seat and an air source distributor, wherein the base seat comprises a mechanical arm connection part, a hand paw base body, a hand paw support connection part and finger buckling plates, the soft actuators adopt an integrated typeparabolic design, the deformation principle is the pneumatic network principle, and the stress concentration problem and the overhead phenomenon universally existing in the soft actuators can be effectively solved. According to the similar round stepped type soft hand paw, by means of pressure intensity applying on the inner portions of the soft actuators, bending deformation of the soft actuators can be realized; and by means of changing of the internal pressure intensity magnitude of the soft actuators, envelope grabbing of an object to be grabbed can be realized. The similar round steppedtype soft hand paw can adapt to unstructured working environments more comprehensively and effectively and can be quite well applied in the field of flexible grabbing.

The invention discloses a dual-purpose bionic soft actuator. The problem that an existing soft robot end actuator is single in function is solved. The dual-purpose bionic soft actuator comprises a first driving module and a second driving module, wherein the first driving module comprises pneumatic elements, a first variable stiffness unit and a first rack; the two pneumatic elements are symmetrically bonded to the two sides of the first variable stiffness unit and jointly fixed to the first rack; the second driving module comprises first air cylinders, a second rack, a third rack, a second variable stiffness unit, a second air cylinder, a telescopic paper folding structure, a fourth rack and a fifth rack; the second rack is hinged with the first rack; the two first air cylinders are hinged to the first rack and the second rack on the same side respectively; the two second variable stiffness units are installed between the first air cylinders and the second rack; the two third racks are symmetrically distributed on the left side and the right side of the second rack; the fourth rack is fixed to the outer sides of the third rack through the second air cylinder; and the telescopic paper folding structure is fixed between the third rack and the fourth rack.

A soft robotic device with a variety of sensors and/or imaging areas is described. The sensor and/or imaging area may be embedded in the soft body or the strain limiting layer of the soft robotic device, attached to the soft body or the strain limiting layer of the soft robotic device, or otherwise linked to the soft body or the strain limiting layer of the soft robotic device.

The invention discloses a soft finger rehabilitation robot system used for symmetric rehabilitation. The system comprises a soft exoskeleton glove, a data acquisition module, a control module, a driving module, a monitoring module and a soft actuator; the data acquisition module is connected to the control module; the driving module is attached to the soft exoskeleton glove, and the other end of the driving module is connected to the control module. The monitoring module is connected to the soft actuator. In addition to the adoption of a pneumatic driving mode and a wired transmission mode, aSmith predictor is also used so that not only can the burden on a patient be reduced, but also the transmission rate of the system is effectively increased, the transmission accuracy of the system iseffectively improved, the reaction speed of a disabled hand is increased, and thus a significant meaning on improving the rehabilitation effect on hand functions is achieved.

The present invention relates to a soft actuator moving linearly against external stimuli whose expansion and contraction can be actively controlled, suggesting that the actuator of the invention overcomes the problems of the conventional soft actuators, The soft actuator of the present invention can be repetitively driven quickly and accurately by controlling heating and cooling by using thermoelectric effect and, the soft actuator of the present invention can realize bending, tensioning, compression, and rotational driving of a tubular device containing a driver.

The invention discloses a soft actuator simulating a frog tongue and an application of the soft actuator, and aims to solve the problems that existing soft robots are generally complex in control flow, difficult in structural design and high in cost. The soft actuator comprises an inflation pipe, a supporting pipe, a flexible film pipe body and a metal wire; the flexible film pipe body is preparedfrom a film; and a connecting edge is arranged on the flexible film pipe body. The soft actuator simulates the predation action of a frog, by the aid of the stretching and curling characteristics ofthe metal wire, through control on the change of pressure, corresponding motions of the actuator are realized. Furthermore, on the basis of the structural design of a sticky object, the actuator can realize the action of sticking objects. On the basis, the actuator is further used for realizing the novel motion manners of bionic frog jumping and swimming in water. The soft actuator has the advantages of simplicity in control, low manufacturing cost, high telescopic efficiency and the like, and a new way is provided for development of future soft robots.

The invention discloses a liquid metal-polymer composite soft actuator and a preparation method thereof. Liquid metal nano liquid drops are coated with polymer nano cellulose to prepare a binary dispersion system; for further improving the stability and response performance of the binary system, a photo-thermal agent is introduced to construct a ternary steady-state dispersion system, namely a liquid metal-based functional coating; a liquid metal-based self-supporting intelligent thin film material is prepared by spontaneously inducing sintering and combining a density gradient relation without the help of external intervention; and meanwhile, the liquid metal-based functional coating can selectively coat different stimuli-responsive high-molecular polymer substrates, and an intelligent soft actuator with multiple stimuli-responsiveness can be developed. The actuator and the method not only provide principle support for solving the stability problem of the liquid metal and endowing the liquid metal with multifunctional application, but also provide scientific basis and theoretical support for expanding the application of the liquid metal in the fields of artificial muscles, soft robots, microcircuits, sensing, biomedical treatment, wearable equipment and the like.

The invention discloses a multi-degree-of-freedom pneumatic software manipulator with an accurate positioning function. The multi-degree-of-freedom pneumatic software manipulator with the accurate positioning function comprises a pneumatic guide rail, pneumatic slide blocks, detection units and control units, wherein the pneumatic guide rail comprises a plurality of pneumatic guide rail bodies evenly distributed in the same circumference, and one ends of the pneumatic guide rail bodies are connected with a pneumatic device; the pneumatic slide blocks comprise soft actuators and connecting blocks, the soft actuators are slidably connected to the pneumatic guide rail bodies and comprise soft actuator bodies, adaptive elements, variable stiffness elements and bending elements; the detection units are mounted on the pneumatic slide blocks and are used for detecting the air pressure, moving distance and external environment of the pneumatic slide blocks; and the control units are connectedwith the detection units and the pneumatic slide blocks. The multi-degree-of-freedom pneumatic software manipulator with the accurate positioning function can increase the contact area between the soft actuator bodies and a caught object, the stability of grabbing is improved, the stiffness and bending degree of the soft actuator bodies are further improved, and grasping some hard and heavy objects is facilitated.

Pressure modulating soft actuator array devices and related systems and methods. One example of the present systems comprises: a device having a body that defines a plurality of cavities; a pressure source configured to be in fluid communication with the plurality of cavities; a plurality of sensors configured to capture data indicative of pressure within the plurality of cavities; and one or more controllers configured to actuate the pressure source to move fluid toward and/or away from one or more of the plurality of cavities in response to data captured by the plurality of sensors; wherein the device is configured to be disposed between a user and a surface on which the user is seated upon.

The present invention relates to an actuator including: a first ionic polymer layer disposed on underside of a first electrode layer; a second ionic polymer layer disposed on top of a second electrode layer; and a porous conducting interlayer disposed between the first ionic polymer layer and the second ionic polymer layer.

The invention discloses a mechanical modeling method for a fold-type soft actuator (especially a fold-type soft finger). The method comprises the following steps: a model 1 is a relationship between input pressure and a finger bending angle; and a model 2 is the relationship between the input pressure and the output force at the front end of a finger at a given bending angle. The fold-type soft actuator is similar to a section diagram structure shown in the figure 1 and is provided with a discrete air cavity structure. The fold-type soft actuator comprises an upper finger layer (1), a lower finger layer (2) and a connector (3). The research method disclosed by the invention is used for researching the relationship between the input pressure and the bending angle of the soft actuator for aiming at the soft actuator device and the relationship between the input pressure and the output force at the tail end, the modeling is conducted, and the relationship between the input pressure and the output force at the tail end is progressive. For the model 1, a Neo-Hookean hyperelastic model is adopted to describe the response characteristics of a silica gel elastomer, the relation between driving gas pressure P and bending angle alpha obtained through a mathematical method is shown in the specification, and the relation among the input pressure, the bending angle and the output force is shown in the specification.

The invention provides a pneumatic soft actuator which is of a spiral structure. A base body is made of a super-elastic material, an inflation air cavity is formed in the base body, input air pressure servers as driving force, and unfolding movement is achieved; the higher the air pressure is, the smaller the curvature is, and after the curvature is decreased to zero, negative curvature unfolding movement can be achieved; a strain limiting layer adheres to the outer side of the base body and is used for limiting axial stretching movement and enhancing unfolding movement; and a sealing blocking head at the tail end of the base body is used for blocking the air cavity, and air leakage is prevented. According to the pneumatic soft actuator, the spiral structure is adopted, thus, two directions of positive curvature and negative curvature for unfolding movement can be achieved along with increasing of the input air pressure, and in addition, large-scale unfolding movement can be achieved under low input air pressure. The spiral pneumatic soft actuator has the good unfolding movement performance and multiple potential application fields, such as the medical field used for developing novel recovery gloves and the like.

The invention discloses a liquid crystal elastomer material based on liquid metal nano-droplets as well as a preparation method and application thereof. Liquid metal nano-droplets are introduced into a liquid crystal elastomer matrix material, sulfur in a molecular chain dynamically interacts with liquid metal, the liquid metal nano-droplets can be uniformly distributed in a liquid crystal elastomer, and the liquid crystal elastomer material (LM-LCE) based on the liquid metal nano-droplets is finally prepared by thermally initiating secondary crosslinking. The mechanical property, especially the fatigue resistance, of the composite liquid crystal elastomer material is greatly improved, and the soft actuator material based on the liquid crystal elastomer and other long-term industrial application can be effectively promoted.

The invention discloses a vacuum-driven actuator based on a scissor mechanism, and belongs to the technical field of vacuum-driven actuators. The scissor mechanism in a traditional mechanism is introduced into the field of soft actuators, the two forms of a straight line and a curve are achieved, adjustment can be conducted according to different working environments, and thus the vacuum-driven actuator adapts to the various working environments. The actuator comprises an outer thin film and a scissor mechanism framework, wherein the outer thin film wraps the outer portion of the scissor mechanism framework and is fixedly connected with the scissor mechanism framework, and a pneumatic connector is arranged on the outer thin film. The vacuum-driven actuator has high stability, shrinkage andsafety.

The invention discloses a soft endoscope. The soft endoscope comprises an endoscope insertion part and a soft actuator which are connected in sequence; the soft actuator comprises a body part and a head part which are connected in sequence; a cavity is formed in the soft actuator; the cavity penetrates through the soft actuator along a central shaft of the soft actuator; a camera, a light source and an optical fiber force sensor are arranged in the cavity of the head part; an air cavity which is circumferentially distributed in the axis direction of the cavity is formed in the body part; an air channel pipeline is arranged in the epidermis of the endoscope insertion part and is communicated with the air cavity, and the bending motion of the soft body actuator is adjusted through the air pressure input into the air cavity by the air channel pipeline in the endoscope insertion part, so that the soft actuator can move more flexibly in the body and has more abundant detection postures; in addition, an optical fiber force sensor is further arranged, palpation is carried out on a suspected focus area, in-vivo image information is collected, meanwhile, contact force data is further collected, and detection can be rapidly, safely and accurately completed.

The invention discloses a small pneumatic three-way soft switching valve. The small pneumatic three-way soft switching valve comprises a driving valve A, a driving valve C and a follow-up valve B. The follow-up valve B is located between the driving valve A and the driving valve C. A driving valve A working gas circuit and a driving valve A control gas circuit are arranged in a valve body of the driving valve A. A follow-up valve B working gas circuit is arranged in the follow-up valve B. A driving valve C working gas circuit and a driving valve C control gas circuit are arranged in a valve body of the driving valve C. The driving valve A control gas circuit and the driving valve C control gas circuit are controlled to realize the on-off of the driving valve A working gas circuit, the follow-up valve B working gas circuit and the driving valve C working gas circuit. The small pneumatic three-way soft switching valve has the advantages that the pneumatic three-way soft switching valve is made of a flexible silica gel material, can be integrated into a soft robot and has good compatibility with a soft actuator, so that the motion control of the soft actuator becomes simple, the adaptability, the reliability and the stability of the soft actuator are improved, and the pneumatic three-way soft switching valve has wide application prospects in the field of pneumatic soft actuators.