Design and Summary Analysis Draft 4

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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. As reported by Matheson, proponents said, “they are being inspired by living organisms and is build from highly compliant materials. Soft robotic are safer, more adaptable, and more resilient alternatives to traditional rigid robots”. The soft robot can be deformed, and because it is fully autonomous, this makes it a challenge as a soft robot can move in a virtually infinite number of directions at any given moment.

The soft robot has one distinctive function, which is movement, and two features that a 3-axis robot does not have, which are the fluidic actuator and the soft sensor.

One of the features 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 can 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. In contrast, a 3-axis robot needs a range of sensors that need to be placed on the robot-like 3D vision and force-torque sensor.

MIT researchers also want to explore a new type of sensor which is designed to improve sensitivity to develop new soft robot models. These new soft robots can have a feature called deep learning. This will improve sensitivity that will reduce the required training for all new soft robots. The current neural network with 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 precise. Humans are not precise machines, compared to our rigid robotic counterparts, and we do just fine”.

Another main feature 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 with one sensor over each segment. The 3-axis robot needs only 3 motors to be able to move.

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.

The soft robot has the function of an infinite number of movements. Due to the function, it has its limitation in “control”. MIT researchers solve the problem by building the neural network that can do away with most of the heavy lifting by filtering out unwanted noise to capture useful feedback signals. In contrast, the 3-axis robot is only able to move on 3-axis. The more axis the robot has the more ways it able to move as 3-axis robots can move in the X, Y, and Z direction.

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.

Therefore, a soft robot has its distinctive features and a function that 3-axis 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 are able to have an infinite number of movements function. A soft robot may be the new type of robot having these distinctive functions and features that the 3-axis robot is unable to have.

 

References

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/

Samuel, B. (2014, September 30). 7 Types of Industrial Robot Sensors

https://blog.robotiq.com/bid/72633/7-Types-of-Industrial-Robot-Sensors

 

Mathiew, BB & Robotiq, I (2015, December 9). How Many Axes Does My Robot Need

https://robohub.org/how-many-axes-does-my-robot-need/


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