Soft robots powered by pressurized fluids can explore new areas and interact with delicate objects in ways traditional rigid robots cannot.But building fully soft robots remains a challenge because many of the components needed to power these devices are inherently rigid.
Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed electric soft valves to control hydraulic soft actuators.These valves can be used in assistive and therapeutic devices, bionic soft robots, soft grippers, surgical robots, and more.
“Today’s stringent regulatory systems greatly limit the adaptability and mobility of fluid-driven soft robots,” said Robert J. Wood, SEAS’ Harry Lewis and Marlyn McGrath Professors of Engineering and Applied Science and the paper’s senior author.”Here, we have developed soft, lightweight valves for controlling soft hydraulic actuators, offering the possibility of soft on-board control for future fluid soft robots.”
Soft valves are not new, but so far none have been able to achieve the pressure or flow required by many existing hydraulic actuators.To overcome these limitations, the team developed new electrodynamic dynamic dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs).These soft actuators have ultra-high power density, are lightweight and can operate hundreds of thousands of times.The team combined these novel dielectric elastomer actuators with soft channels to form soft valves for fluid control.
“These soft valves have fast response times and can control fluid pressure and flow to meet the demands of hydraulic actuators,” said Siyi Xu, a graduate student at SEAS and the paper’s first author.”These valves allow us to quickly and robustly control large and small hydraulic actuators with internal volumes ranging from hundreds of microliters to tens of milliliters.”
Using the DEA soft valve, the researchers demonstrated the control of hydraulic actuators of different volumes and achieved independent control of multiple actuators driven by a single pressure source.
“This compact and lightweight DEA valve enables unprecedented electrical control of hydraulic actuators, showing the potential for on-board motion control of soft-fluid-driven robots in the future,” Xu said.
The study was co-authored by Yufeng Chen, Nak-Seung Patrick Hyun and Kaitlyn Becker.It was supported by award CMMI-1830291 from the National Science Foundation and the National Robotics Program.
Materials provided by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.Original article by Leah Burrows.Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Post time: Jun-07-2022
