Pontin, M. orcid.org/0000-0002-4363-0649 and Damian, D.D. orcid.org/0000-0002-0595-0182 (2024) Multimodal soft valve enables physical responsiveness for preemptive resilience of soft robots. Science Robotics, 9 (92). ISSN 2470-9476
Abstract
Resilience is crucial for the self-preservation of biological systems: Humans recover from wounds thanks to an immune system that autonomously enacts a multistage response to promote healing. Similar passive mechanisms can enable pneumatic soft robots to overcome common faults such as bursts originating from punctures or overpressurization. Recent technological advancements, ranging from fault-tolerant controllers for robot reconfigurability to self-healing materials, have paved the way for robot resilience. However, these techniques require powerful processors and large datasets or external hardware. How to extend the operational life span of damaged soft robots with minimal computational and physical resources remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated a multimodal pneumatic soft valve capable of passive resilient reactions, triggered by faults, to prevent or isolate damage in soft robots. In its forward operation mode, the valve, requiring a single supply pressure, isolated punctured soft inflatable elements from the rest of the soft robot in as fast as 21 milliseconds. In its reverse operation mode, the valve can passively protect robots against overpressurization caused by external disturbances, avoiding plastic deformations and bursts. Furthermore, the two modes combined enabled the creation of an endogenously controlled valve capable of autonomous burst isolation. We demonstrated the passive and quick response and the possibility of monolithic integration of the soft valve in grippers and crawling robots. The approach proposed in this study provides a distributed small-footprint alternative to controller-based resilience and is expected to help soft robots achieve uninterrupted long-lasting operation.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Science Robotics is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Information and Computing Sciences; Control Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics; Engineering |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL EP/X017486/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Jan 2025 08:45 |
Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2025 14:30 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1126/scirobotics.adk9978 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:221651 |