16 results about "Soft robotics" patented technology

A soft robotic gripper includes multiple fingers, each embedding at least one artificial muscle formed as a low-temperature shape-memory coil that recovers a memorized shape when electrically heated, thereby driving the fingers between open and gripping configurations in cold environments; the coil acts as a Joule-heated actuator enabling reversible contraction / extension with improved response at reduced transformation temperatures suitable for low-ambient operation.

Feedback control for controlling a robotic manipulator includes receiving measurement signals from one or more tactile sensors and filtering the measurement signals to align them with the directions of motion of the end effector to produce an impedance-shaping signal. The feedback control determines one or more control signals to the actuators to track a reference state of the end effector based on measurements of the state of the end effector and combines the control signal with the impedance shaping signal to produce control commands. Also, the feedback control may include submitting the determined control commands to the actuators causing a change in the state of the end effector, where the state of the end effector includes one or a combination of an end effector position, an end effector velocity, and an end effector force.

This invention belongs to the field of hydrogel technology, specifically relating to an organosilicon-reinforced high-strength and tough hydrogel, its preparation method, and its applications. The organosilicon-reinforced high-strength and tough hydrogel and its preparation method involve first preparing a hydrophobic amino-functionalized polysiloxane (APSi) using aminosilane as a raw material. Then, APSi is mixed with polymerizable monoacids and hydrophilic matrix monomers. Uniform dispersion and strong interfacial bonding of the organosilicon are achieved through salt-forming ion interactions. The high-strength and tough hydrogel is obtained through photo-initiated or thermally-initiated polymerization. This invention overcomes the technical bottleneck of limited improvement in the strength and toughness of hydrogels by traditional methods, completely solving the industry problems of poor mechanical properties, weak puncture resistance, poor tear resistance, uneven organosilicon dispersion, and weak interfacial bonding in traditional hydrogels. The resulting hydrogel exhibits high tensile strength, good toughness, excellent puncture and tear resistance, fatigue resistance, and strong stability. The preparation process is mild and simple, and it can be widely applied in high-end fields such as biomedicine, flexible electronics, soft robotics, and smart wearables.

This invention discloses a waterproof, flexible, programmable actuator array, belonging to the field of intelligent materials and soft robotics technology. The actuator array includes a flexible support frame, a composite waterproof electrode layer, wires, and dielectric liquid actuator units. The flexible support frame is a PET mesh structure. The composite waterproof electrode layer includes hydrogel electrodes and a multi-layer waterproof encapsulation of UV adhesive and PET tape. The electrodes are connected to external circuits via wires. The dielectric liquid actuator unit is a cavity formed by heat-sealing a PET-EVA composite film and filling it with silicone oil. This invention utilizes an external conductive water medium as anisotropic electrodes. Electrostatic pressure is converted into directional deformation through the frame constraint. Each electrode unit can be independently controlled, achieving multi-modal biomimetic deformation. Furthermore, it exhibits overall optical transparency and high underwater electrical reliability, solving the problems of underwater insulation failure, structural redundancy, and single driving mode in existing flexible actuators.

The application discloses a soft robot arm based on light-induced phase change. The soft robot arm comprises a flexible arm and a manipulator claw, the flexible arm comprises a plurality of modules, each module comprises four groups of driving devices, the driving device comprises four first wrinkle actuators which are distributed in X shape, the top and bottom of the driving device are provided with end covers, and two adjacent end covers are connected through a second wrinkle actuator; the top of the flexible arm is provided with a solar panel, and the manipulator claw is connected with the solar panel through a wire; the wrinkle actuator comprises a wrinkle shell, a low-temperature phase change liquid is arranged in the wrinkle shell, two air bags are arranged in the low-temperature phase change liquid, water and condensation beads are arranged in the air bags, and sodium hydroxide and ammonium chloride are respectively arranged in the condensation beads of the two air bags. The soft robot arm overcomes the dependence on traditional motors, realizes untethered driving, realizes active refrigeration in the gas-liquid phase change, significantly shortens the actuating period, removes the posture condition limitation of heating on the machine, and realizes the coordinated movement of multiple deformation types such as stretching, bending, twisting and variable diameter of multiple degrees of freedom.

This invention discloses a core-sheath composite artificial muscle fiber system, its preparation method, and its applications. The core-sheath composite artificial muscle fiber system includes a fiber body and an electrolyte; the fiber body comprises a polymer fiber core and a carbon material sheath layer. The polymer fiber core is electrochemically inert and is twisted into an overtwisted spiral state; the electrolyte contains driving ions. The core-sheath composite artificial muscle fiber system provided by this invention uses a polymer material as the fiber core to replace part of the carbon material fiber, reducing the amount of carbon material used and significantly lowering material costs. Furthermore, due to the presence of the fiber core, each part of the carbon material sheath layer maintains a large twist angle and can significantly shorten the migration path of driving ions within the fiber, thus exhibiting a higher response rate, and also higher recovery rate and power density at high frequencies. It can be used for sewing and has broad application prospects in soft robotics, biomedical engineering, smart fabrics, and other fields.

The application discloses a kind of hierarchical alignment method and system of soft manipulator multi-modal perception dataset, through the three-stage design of "single modal noise evaluation→feature level adaptive alignment→semantic level constraint alignment", realize from data quality evaluation to feature space alignment again to semantic consistency optimization Full-process coverage, break through the limitation that traditional method only pays attention to single level alignment, make model can gradually adapt to the complex characteristics of tactile multi-modal perception.Secondly, based on the adaptive temperature function of modal pair comprehensive reliability design, a strict monotonic mapping relationship between temperature coefficient and modal noise characteristics is established, so that the high-noise modal pair automatically obtains a larger temperature coefficient to enhance robustness, and the low-noise modal pair automatically obtains a smaller temperature coefficient to improve alignment accuracy, which fundamentally solves the technical problem that the fixed temperature coefficient cannot adapt to the heterogeneous noise characteristics of tactile multi-modal, and realizes end-to-end sensitivity adjustment through globally learnable adaptive adjustment coefficient.

This invention discloses a multi-section nested soft robotic arm and its usage method, comprising: at least two sets of robotic arm units nested sequentially from the outside to the inside; each robotic arm unit includes multiple circumferentially evenly spaced corrugated tubes, an arc-shaped limiting plate located between adjacent corrugated tubes, and a connecting plate connected to the top of the corrugated tubes; between adjacent robotic arm units, the corrugated tubes of the inner robotic arm unit are connected one-to-one with the arc-shaped limiting plates of the outer robotic arm unit. This invention achieves the extension, retraction, and bending of the robotic arm by adjusting the air pressure inside the corrugated tubes; the inner-outer nesting method ensures that the overall length of the robotic arm does not increase when the robotic arm units retract, thus simplifying the structure and achieving miniaturization; the extended robotic arm can operate in confined environments and withstand a certain load, allowing for precise control of the extension, retraction, and bending of different robotic arm units with high control accuracy.

This invention provides an optoelectronic oscillator and its control method, relating to the fields of smart materials and soft robotics. The oscillator includes a fixed frame, an LCE rope, a thin rope, a mass block, a spring, a Y-shaped baffle, and a seesaw. One end of the LCE rope, the thin rope, and the spring are connected at a connection point G. The other ends of the LCE rope and the spring are fixed to the fixed frame. The mass block is fixed to the other end of the thin rope and placed on the seesaw. The seesaw is rotatably connected to the fixed frame via a fulcrum, allowing it to rotate left and right. A linear light source illuminates the LCE rope, causing the mass block to move on the seesaw and trigger its rotation, which in turn causes the Y-shaped baffle to switch the illumination / blocking state of the LCE rope, forming a periodic cycle. This application actively introduces a mechanical time delay through structural design, thereby eliminating the dependence on rapid material response. It features a simple structure, relaxed driving conditions, and a controllable oscillation period, adaptable to different application scenarios. Furthermore, its physical mechanism is clear, facilitating theoretical modeling and control.

This invention discloses a control method and oscillator for a bistable optically driven oscillator, relating to the fields of smart materials and soft robotics. The control method for a bistable optically driven oscillator includes: establishing a light-thermal-mechanical-motion coupling model of an LCE optical fiber; determining, through the coupling model, the mapping relationship between the light intensity acting on the LCE optical fiber, the material parameters of the LCE optical fiber or the geometric parameters of the oscillator, and the oscillation frequency and critical contraction strain of the oscillator; and controlling the oscillation state of the oscillator within its self-oscillation period by adjusting the light intensity acting on the LCE optical fiber, or adjusting the spring stiffness ratio, or adjusting the initial delay distance between the slider and the light-blocking rod. Theoretical modeling reveals the regulation law of the light intensity of the LCE optical fiber, the material parameters of the LCE optical fiber, or the geometric parameters of the oscillator on the critical contraction strain and oscillation frequency, enabling precise control of the oscillator's motion state. The method is simple in structure, flexible in control, and has high assembly tolerance.

This invention provides a locally stiffened, rope-driven continuum soft robotic arm, belonging to the technical field of soft robots and continuum mechanisms. It can significantly alleviate or solve the problems of insufficient axial compression capacity, difficulty in adjusting local stiffness, and susceptibility of internal structure to external environmental influences in existing rope-driven continuum soft robotic arms. The robotic arm includes a mesh continuum body, a longitudinal drive assembly, and a circumferential stiffening assembly. The mesh continuum body is a cylindrical mesh structure extending along the length of the robotic arm. The longitudinal drive assembly drives the body to bend continuously through the differential release and retraction of multiple longitudinal drive ropes, and drives axial compression of the body through synchronous tightening. The circumferential stiffening assembly is located in a predetermined locally stiffened area. It applies circumferential tension and radial constraint to this area by tightening the circumferential stiffening ropes along a circumferential constraint path to form locally stiffened support. This invention can balance overall compliant motion, axial compression, local support, and external protection capabilities.

The present invention relates to three-dimensional (3D) seamless textile actuators based on the working principle of thermal activation, developed for soft robotic applications.

This invention discloses a light-driven fluid manipulation device and method, belonging to the field of microfluidics and soft robotics. The device includes a carrier platform, an LCE ring mounted on the platform, and blades fixed to the LCE ring. The LCE ring is made of a photothermal responsive liquid crystal elastomer material. Under steady-state illumination, the LCE ring absorbs light energy, generating a non-uniform temperature field and thermally shrinking and deforming, thereby generating torque to achieve continuous self-rotation, synchronously driving the blades to drive the surrounding fluid to flow in a directional manner or to mix in a rotational manner. This invention also provides a control method based on a multi-field coupling model, achieving non-contact precise control of the fluid driving speed by adjusting the external light intensity. This device requires no external power supply or complex mechanical seals and is suitable for applications such as microfluidic chips, biomedical detection, and in-situ water treatment.

This invention discloses a multimodal aerodynamic space exploration robotic arm based on the tristable characteristics of Kresling origami. The robotic arm includes origami units, each containing an airbag. By using Kresling origami as the unit structure, this invention ensures the robotic arm's lightweight design while reducing the interaction forces between the robotic arm and the target object during exploration, thus improving structural reliability and effectively adapting to the special environment of microgravity in space. The origami structure of this invention achieves a third stable state with high stiffness and stability on specific surfaces through the expansion of the airbag inside the unit. This breaks the original deformation mode of Kresling origami, increases bending motion, and allows for programmable control of the airbag's state, enabling the robotic arm to achieve full-circumference bending and diverse motion modes. This effectively improves the ability of continuous robotic arms to perform complex tasks and promotes the development of origami structures in the field of soft robotic space exploration technology.

A synthetic patient specific A benchtop beating heart simulator that is custom-fabricated using 3D printing technology based on patient-specific imaging data has been developed. The simulator employs soft robotics to accurately mimic the motion and biomechanics of the left atrium, with a particular focus on the left atrial appendage and conditions associated with Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). This simulator is designed to recreate hemodynamics in a controlled benchtop setting, allowing for precise testing and evaluation of medical device designs and interventions.

This utility model relates to a biomimetic aircraft with a flexible robotic arm, comprising an aircraft body, a rotor assembly for generating wind power mounted on the aircraft body, a soft robotic arm and a drive assembly for controlling changes in the shape of the soft robotic arm; this utility model, through a soft robotic arm consisting of a drive assembly with line drive and articulated arms connected in series, and a suction cup on it, combined with an angle adjustment assembly, solves the problems of limited degrees of freedom and unreliable grasping of existing UAV robotic arms, thereby achieving adaptive, compliant and stable grasping operations in complex three-dimensional space, significantly expanding the application range of UAVs in complex environments.