Minimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulators

In the field of soft robotics, flexibility, adaptability, and functionality define a new era of robotic systems that can safely deform, reach, and grasp. To optimize the design of soft robotic systems, it is critical to understand their configuration space and full range of motion across a wide vari...

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Main Authors: Kaczmarski, B, Moulton, DE, Goriely, A, Kuhl, E
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024
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author Kaczmarski, B
Moulton, DE
Goriely, A
Kuhl, E
author_facet Kaczmarski, B
Moulton, DE
Goriely, A
Kuhl, E
author_sort Kaczmarski, B
collection OXFORD
description In the field of soft robotics, flexibility, adaptability, and functionality define a new era of robotic systems that can safely deform, reach, and grasp. To optimize the design of soft robotic systems, it is critical to understand their configuration space and full range of motion across a wide variety of design parameters. Here we integrate extreme mechanics and soft robotics to provide quantitative insights into the design of bio-inspired soft slender manipulators using the concept of reachability clouds. For a minimal three-actuator design inspired by the elephant trunk, we establish an efficient and robust reduced-order method to generate reachability clouds of almost half a million points each to visualize the accessible workspace of a wide variety of manipulator designs. We generate an atlas of 256 reachability clouds by systematically varying the key design parameters including the fiber count, revolution, tapering angle, and activation magnitude. Our results demonstrate that reachability clouds not only offer an immediately clear perspective into the inverse problem of control, but also introduce powerful metrics to characterize reachable volumes, unreachable regions, and actuator redundancy to quantify the performance of soft slender robots.
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spelling oxford-uuid:e84fc6cd-e969-4b61-bdb8-ed4a553d30e82024-08-27T08:17:21ZMinimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulatorsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:e84fc6cd-e969-4b61-bdb8-ed4a553d30e8EnglishSymplectic ElementsElsevier2024Kaczmarski, BMoulton, DEGoriely, AKuhl, EIn the field of soft robotics, flexibility, adaptability, and functionality define a new era of robotic systems that can safely deform, reach, and grasp. To optimize the design of soft robotic systems, it is critical to understand their configuration space and full range of motion across a wide variety of design parameters. Here we integrate extreme mechanics and soft robotics to provide quantitative insights into the design of bio-inspired soft slender manipulators using the concept of reachability clouds. For a minimal three-actuator design inspired by the elephant trunk, we establish an efficient and robust reduced-order method to generate reachability clouds of almost half a million points each to visualize the accessible workspace of a wide variety of manipulator designs. We generate an atlas of 256 reachability clouds by systematically varying the key design parameters including the fiber count, revolution, tapering angle, and activation magnitude. Our results demonstrate that reachability clouds not only offer an immediately clear perspective into the inverse problem of control, but also introduce powerful metrics to characterize reachable volumes, unreachable regions, and actuator redundancy to quantify the performance of soft slender robots.
spellingShingle Kaczmarski, B
Moulton, DE
Goriely, A
Kuhl, E
Minimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulators
title Minimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulators
title_full Minimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulators
title_fullStr Minimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulators
title_full_unstemmed Minimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulators
title_short Minimal activation with maximal reach: reachability clouds of bio-inspired slender manipulators
title_sort minimal activation with maximal reach reachability clouds of bio inspired slender manipulators
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AT gorielya minimalactivationwithmaximalreachreachabilitycloudsofbioinspiredslendermanipulators
AT kuhle minimalactivationwithmaximalreachreachabilitycloudsofbioinspiredslendermanipulators