TY - GEN
T1 - SpineMan
T2 - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2015
AU - Runge-Borchert, Gundula
AU - Preller, Tobias
AU - Zellmer, Sabrina
AU - Blankemeyer, Sebastian
AU - Kreuz, Marian
AU - Garnweitner, Georg
AU - Raatz, Annika
PY - 2015/12/11
Y1 - 2015/12/11
N2 - Robots made from soft materials have recently captured the interest of researchers from a range of fields including engineers, material scientists, and chemists, biologists, and computer scientists. This new paradigm of soft robotics aims to develop more adaptable, more capable and safer robots that can interact with unstructured environments or permit close cooperation with humans. Current, commercially-available solutions in industrial robotics tend to take a software-centered approach to safe human-robot interaction or focus on the design of lightweight structures consisting of conventional rigid materials. Even though these solutions provide a higher safety level than traditional industrial robots, robots that comprise a sufficiently large amount of soft structures will bring about a certain degree of inherent safety. One of the major challenges in today's soft robotics research is to design robots that are inherently safe and adaptable but are also capable of bearing limited loads. Nature has solved this predicament in larger animals by incorporating stiff endoskeletons, which support the weight of the otherwise predominantly soft bodies. This insight has led to the development of a novel spine-like manipulator (SpineMan) comprised of rigid elements made from polypropylene and soft elements consisting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) borax hydrogels that are enveloped in a silicone skin. The initial design, material selection, synthesis, and characterization of this robot are presented in this article.
AB - Robots made from soft materials have recently captured the interest of researchers from a range of fields including engineers, material scientists, and chemists, biologists, and computer scientists. This new paradigm of soft robotics aims to develop more adaptable, more capable and safer robots that can interact with unstructured environments or permit close cooperation with humans. Current, commercially-available solutions in industrial robotics tend to take a software-centered approach to safe human-robot interaction or focus on the design of lightweight structures consisting of conventional rigid materials. Even though these solutions provide a higher safety level than traditional industrial robots, robots that comprise a sufficiently large amount of soft structures will bring about a certain degree of inherent safety. One of the major challenges in today's soft robotics research is to design robots that are inherently safe and adaptable but are also capable of bearing limited loads. Nature has solved this predicament in larger animals by incorporating stiff endoskeletons, which support the weight of the otherwise predominantly soft bodies. This insight has led to the development of a novel spine-like manipulator (SpineMan) comprised of rigid elements made from polypropylene and soft elements consisting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) borax hydrogels that are enveloped in a silicone skin. The initial design, material selection, synthesis, and characterization of this robot are presented in this article.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84958156996
U2 - 10.1109/iros.2015.7353508
DO - 10.1109/iros.2015.7353508
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84958156996
T3 - IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
SP - 1103
EP - 1110
BT - IROS Hamburg 2015 - Conference Digest
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 28 September 2015 through 2 October 2015
ER -