This review comprises a detailed survey of ongoing methodologies for soft actuators, highlighting approaches suitable for nanometer- to centimeter-scale robotic applications. Soft robots present a special design challenge in that their actuation and sensing mechanisms are often highly integrated with the robot body and overall functionality. When less than a centimeter, they belong to an even more special subcategory of robots or devices, in that they often lack on-board power, sensing, computation, and control. Soft, active materials are particularly well suited for this task, with a wide range of stimulants and a number of impressive examples, demonstrating large deformations, high motion complexities, and varied multifunctionality. Recent research includes both the development of new materials and composites, as well as novel implementations leveraging the unique properties of soft materials.

Soft Actuators for Small-Scale Robotics.

Jumping on water is a unique locomotion mode found in semi-aquatic arthropods, such as water striders. To reproduce this feat in a surface tension-dominant jumping robot, we elucidated the hydrodynamics involved and applied them to develop a bio-inspired impulsive mechanism that maximizes momentum transfer to water. We found that water striders rotate the curved tips of their legs inward at a relatively low descending velocity with a force just below that required to break the water surface (144 millinewtons/meter). We built a 68-milligram at-scale jumping robotic insect and verified that it jumps on water with maximum momentum transfer. The results suggest an understanding of the hydrodynamic phenomena used by semi-aquatic arthropods during water jumping and prescribe a method for reproducing these capabilities in artificial systems.

Jumping on water: Surface tension–dominated jumping of water striders and robotic insects

Fleas can jump more than 200 times their body length. They do so by employing a unique catapult mechanism: storing a large amount of elastic energy and releasing it quickly by torque reversal triggering. This paper presents a flea-inspired catapult mechanism for miniature jumping robots. A robotic design was created to realize the mechanism for the biological catapult with shape memory alloy (SMA) spring actuators and a smart composite microstructure. SMA spring actuators replace conventional actuators, transmissions, and the elastic element to reduce the size. The body uses a four-bar mechanism that simulates a flea's leg kinematics with reduced degrees of freedom. Dynamic modeling was derived, and theoretical jumping was simulated to optimize the leg design for increased takeoff speed. A robotic prototype was fabricated with 1.1-g weight and 2-cm body size that can jump a distance of up to 30 times its body size.

Flea-Inspired Catapult Mechanism for Miniature Jumping Robots

Robotic artificial muscles are a subset of artificial muscles that are capable of producing biologically inspired motions useful for robot systems, i.e., large power-to-weight ratios, inherent compliance, and large range of motions. These actuators, ranging from shape memory alloys to dielectric elastomers, are increasingly popular for biomimetic robots as they may operate without using complex linkage designs or other cumbersome mechanisms. Recent achievements in fabrication, modeling, and control methods have significantly contributed to their potential utilization in a wide range of applications. However, no survey paper has gone into depth regarding considerations pertaining to their selection, design, and usage in generating biomimetic motions. In this paper, we discuss important characteristics and considerations in the selection, design, and implementation of various prominent and unique robotic artificial muscles for biomimetic robots, and provide perspectives on next-generation muscle-powered robots.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielaam/8860/8731790/8725920-aam.pdf

Robotic Artificial Muscles: Current Progress and Future Perspectives

This paper proposes three design concepts for developing a crawling robot inspired by an inchworm, called the Omegabot. First, for locomotion, the robot strides by bending its body into an omega shape; anisotropic friction pads enable the robot to move forward using this simple motion. Second, the robot body is made of a single part but has two four-bar mechanisms and one spherical six-bar mechanism; the mechanisms are 2-D patterned into a single piece of composite and folded to become a robot body that weighs less than 1 g and that can crawl and steer. This design does not require the assembly of various mechanisms of the body structure, thereby simplifying the fabrication process. Third, a new concept for using a shape-memory alloy (SMA) coil-spring actuator is proposed; the coil spring is designed to have a large spring index and to work over a large pitch-angle range. This large-index-and-pitch SMA spring actuator cools faster and requires less energy, without compromising the amount of force and displacement that it can produce. Therefore, the frequency and the efficiency of the actuator are improved. A prototype was used to demonstrate that the inchworm-inspired, novel, small-scale, lightweight robot manufactured on a single piece of composite can crawl and steer.

Omega-Shaped Inchworm-Inspired Crawling Robot With Large-Index-and-Pitch (LIP) SMA Spring Actuators

A shape memory alloy (SMA) coil spring actuator is fabricated by annealing an SMA wire wound on a rod. Four design parameters are required for the winding: the wire diameter, the rod diameter, the pitch angle and the number of active coils. These parameters determine the force and stroke produced by the actuator. In this paper, we present an engineering design framework to select these parameters on the basis of the desired force and stoke. The behavior of the SMA coil spring actuator is described in detail to provide information about the inner workings of the actuator and to aid in selecting the design parameters. A new static two-state model, which represents a force?deflection relation of the actuator at the fully martensitic state (M100%) and fully austenitic state (A100%), is derived for use in the design. Two nonlinear effects are considered in the model: the nonlinear detwinning effect of the SMA and the nonlinear geometric effect of the coil spring for large deformations. The design process is organized into six steps and is presented with a flowchart and design equations. By following this systematic approach, an SMA coil spring actuator can be designed for various applications. Experimental results verified the static two-state model for the SMA coil spring actuator and a case study showed that an actuator designed using this framework met the design requirements. The proposed design framework was developed to assist application engineers such as robotics researchers in designing SMA coil spring actuators without the need for full thermomechanical models.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/21/5/055009/pdf

Engineering design framework for a shape memory alloy coil spring actuator using a static two-state model

One way to increase the range of motion of shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators is to create displacements of the SMA associated with not only the deformation from straining but also rigid-body motion from translation and rotation. Rigid-body motion allows the SMA to create larger displacements without exceeding the maximum recovery strain so that the SMA actuators can have a larger shape recovery ratio. To improve the linear actuation stroke of SMA wire actuators, a novel SMA spring actuator is proposed that employs a double-coil geometry that allows the displacement of the SMA to be mainly induced by rigid-body motion. A double-coil SMA spring actuator is fabricated by coiling an SMA wire twice so that the double coiling results in a reduction of the initial length of the double-coil SMA spring actuator. The effects of the geometric parameters on the actuation characteristic of a double-coil SMA spring actuator are verified numerically by finite element analysis and experimentally according to a parametric study of the geometric parameters. The displacement-to-force profile of the double-coil SMA spring actuator is nonlinear, and the spring stiffness changes when the actuator transforms its configuration from a double-coil shape to a single-coil shape. According to the results of the parametric study, increasing the wire diameter increases both primary and secondary coil stiffness, and increasing the primary inner coil diameter decreases both primary and secondary coil stiffness, whereas increasing the secondary inner coil diameter decreases only the secondary coil stiffness. The result shows that one of the double-coil SMA spring actuators with an initial length of 8 mm has a recovery ratio of 1250%, while the recovery ratio of the single-coil SMA spring actuator with the same geometric parameters is 432%.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/24/9/095014/pdf

A large-stroke shape memory alloy spring actuator using double-coil configuration

Climbing is one of the major subjects in robotics research. We present a finger-sized wood climbing robot with a spine-based gripper. This robot is inspired by the inchworm (Ascotis Selenaria) which can crawl and climb on trees with a simple omega-shaped bending motion. This simple locomotion enables the robot to be smaller and more easily controlled. The robot is built with smart composite microstructures (SCM) and shape memory alloy spring actuators. We suggest a special pattern design for the SCM to generate a two-dimensional turning motion and climb a vertical wood surface. Compared with crawling on the ground, climbing a wall against gravity requires larger actuation force. This paper describes the design and fabrication of “Climbing Omegabot,” and a proper selection of SMA spring actuators with a method for improving actuation performance. Our results demonstrate that Omegabot can crawl, turn, and climb on a tree. This robot can be used for search and rescue, or gathering useful information in areas where only small-scale robots can penetrate.

Sung-Min An

Papers

Flea-Inspired Catapult Mechanism for Miniature Jumping Robots

Engineering design framework for a shape memory alloy coil spring actuator using a static two-state model

A large-stroke shape memory alloy spring actuator using double-coil configuration

Finger-sized climbing robot using artificial proleg