Design and Summary Analysis Draft 3

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MEC 1281

Summary Analysis

Draft #3

By Chan Yong Sheng

22th Feb 2021

 

According to the article, “Soft Robotic Arm…” (2020), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a soft robot that can know its position in a 3D environment that uses its sensorized skin. The soft robot has its own distinctive functions and feature.

One of the functions of soft robots is their soft sensors. Soft robots use soft sensors that are conductive silicone sheets that had been cut into kirigami patterns. These soft sensors have “piezoresistive” properties, that are able to change in electrical resistance when it is strained. When the soft sensors are deformed as the soft robots are stretching and compressing, the electrical resistance is converted into an output voltage that is then used as a signal correlation to that movement. Soft sensors are able to be fabricated using off-the-shelf materials.

The soft sensor is been fused using plasma bonding. Plasma bonding is a technique that energizes a part of a surface of the soft sensor material to make a bond to another material. Using a handheld plasma bonding device, it takes a couple of hours to shape many sensors that can be able to bond with the soft robots.

Another function of soft robots is their fluidic actuators. One soft robot is comprised of three segments each segment comprises four fluidic actuators in a total of 12 to move the soft robot arm. The soft sensor is fused one sensor over each segment.

Soft robots have an advantage compared to robots with the traditional rigid design due to their features it has. Because of its infinite number of movements that the soft robots are able to make at any time it needs a flexible sensor. They do not rely on cameras to provide feedback which is unideal for actual soft robot applications. As reported by Matheson, Rus said “Think of your own body: You can close your eyes and reconstruct the world based on feedback from your skin,”. One of the future goals of soft robots is to able to make artificial limbs that can move decorously and manipulate objects in the environment. Each soft sensor is covering and gathering data from one embedded actuator in the soft robot.

Soft robots have its ability to have an infinite number of movements due to their features has their limitation in the “control”. MIT researchers built a neural network that is able to do away with most of the heavy lifting by filtering out unwanted noise to capture useful feedback signals. Now MIT researchers have developed a new type of soft robots that reduces the number of variables needed for their latest model to process.

In an experiment that took place an hour and a half, MIT researchers make use of the soft robot's features to make it swing around and extend themselves in random configurations. MIT researchers used a traditional motion capture system to collect data from the soft robot’s movement.

At MIT computer science and artificial laboratory (CSAIL), they want to use these soft robots features for instance to orient and control automatically by themselves. They want these soft robots to pick items up and interact with the environments as it will be the first step towards a more sophisticated automated control.

MIT researchers also want to explore a new type of sensor design to improved sensitivity to develop new soft robot models. These new soft robots are able to have a feature called deep learning it will improved sensitivity that will reduce the required training for all new soft robots. The current neural network and sensor skin is not sensitive to capture subtle motions or dynamic movements. As reported by Matheson, Truby said “Like our soft robots, living systems don’t have to be totally precise. Humans are not precise machines, compared to our rigid robotic counterparts, and we do just fine”.

Therefore soft robot has its distinctive functions and feature that other robots do not have. One of the distinctive functions is its soft sensors that able to be stretch and compress. Using the soft sensors designs, soft robots able to have an infinite number of movements feature. The soft robot may be the new type of robot having these distinctive functions and features.

Matheson, R. (2020, February 15). "Sensorized" Skin Enables Soft Robotic Arm to Feel Its Own Way At MIT.

Retrieved from www.therobotreport.com/sensorized-skin-enables-soft-robotic-arm-feel-own-way-mit/

Matheson, R. (2020, February 16). Soft Robotic Arm Uses Flexible Sensors To Understand Its Position control engineering.

Retrieved from www.controleng.com/articles/soft-robotic-arm-uses-flexible-sensors-to-understand-its-position/

Mod, S, (2020, March 4). New "Sensitized" Skin Gives Robots A Better Sense Of Motion.

Retrieved from www.engineersgarage.com/news/new-sensitized-skin-gives-robots-a-better-sense-of-motion/

Modic, E, (2020, February 21). Soft Robotic Arm Uses Flexible Sensors To Understand Its Position.

Retrieved from www.todaysmedicaldevelopments.com/article/3d-robot-skin-flexible-sensors-artificial-intelligence-mit/

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