An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots

Martin S Garrad; Isabella Feeney; Andrew T Conn; Jonathan M Rossiter; Markus Nemitz; Helmut Hauser

doi:10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479381

An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots

Martin S Garrad^*, Isabella Feeney, Andrew T Conn, Jonathan M Rossiter, Markus Nemitz, Helmut Hauser

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

3 Citations (Scopus)

324 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Despite an ever increasing variety of soft sensors and actuators, there are only a few entirely soft robots that integrate both modalities into an autonomous system. Often, a minimum set of rigid components such as microcontrollers, are embedded into soft systems, compromising their flexibility. This has led to growing interest in entirely compliant versions of controllers for soft robots. In this work, we present the first integration of two such soft control systems: the soft, bistable valve and the soft matter computer. By combining them we allow information to pass from the pneumatic to the electrical domain, enabling control of electric soft actuators with pneumatic control signals. Our work is an important step towards the development of fully compliant robots and machines.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Pages	547-550
Number of pages	4
ISBN (Electronic)	9781728177137
ISBN (Print)	9781728177144
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479381
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 12 Jul 2021

Publication series

Name	IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)
Publisher	IEEE
ISSN (Print)	2769-4526
ISSN (Electronic)	2769-4534

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
email: [email protected] MG and HH were supported by the Leverhulme Trust Research Project RPG-2016-345. AC was supported by EPSRC research grant EP/R02961X/1. JR was supported through EPSRC research grants EP/S026096/1, EP/R02961X/1 and EP/M020460/1, and by the Royal Academy of Engineering as a Chair in Emerging Technologies. We would also like to acknowledge the startup funding from WPI for salary support of MPN. 1Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, UK 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, UK 3SoftLab, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of Bristol and University of the West of England, UK 4Nemitz Robotics Group, Department of Robotics Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, USA Data are available at the University of Bristol data repository, data.bris, at https://doi.org/10.5523/bris.1lwtezdrafm2e29fvz5dorzvj2.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 IEEE.

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Garrad, M. S., Feeney, I., Conn, A. T., Rossiter, J. M., Nemitz, M., & Hauser, H. (2021). An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots. In 2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021 (pp. 547-550). Article 9479381 (IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479381

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note = "Funding Information: email: [email protected] MG and HH were supported by the Leverhulme Trust Research Project RPG-2016-345. AC was supported by EPSRC research grant EP/R02961X/1. JR was supported through EPSRC research grants EP/S026096/1, EP/R02961X/1 and EP/M020460/1, and by the Royal Academy of Engineering as a Chair in Emerging Technologies. We would also like to acknowledge the startup funding from WPI for salary support of MPN. 1Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, UK 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, UK 3SoftLab, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of Bristol and University of the West of England, UK 4Nemitz Robotics Group, Department of Robotics Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, USA Data are available at the University of Bristol data repository, data.bris, at https://doi.org/10.5523/bris.1lwtezdrafm2e29fvz5dorzvj2. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 IEEE.",

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Garrad, MS, Feeney, I, Conn, AT , Rossiter, JM, Nemitz, M & Hauser, H 2021, An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots. in 2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021., 9479381, IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 547-550. https://doi.org/10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479381

An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots. / Garrad, Martin S; Feeney, Isabella; Conn, Andrew T et al.
2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2021. p. 547-550 9479381 (IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

TY - GEN

T1 - An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots

AU - Garrad, Martin S

AU - Feeney, Isabella

AU - Conn, Andrew T

AU - Rossiter, Jonathan M

AU - Nemitz, Markus

AU - Hauser, Helmut

N1 - Funding Information: email: [email protected] MG and HH were supported by the Leverhulme Trust Research Project RPG-2016-345. AC was supported by EPSRC research grant EP/R02961X/1. JR was supported through EPSRC research grants EP/S026096/1, EP/R02961X/1 and EP/M020460/1, and by the Royal Academy of Engineering as a Chair in Emerging Technologies. We would also like to acknowledge the startup funding from WPI for salary support of MPN. 1Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, UK 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, UK 3SoftLab, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of Bristol and University of the West of England, UK 4Nemitz Robotics Group, Department of Robotics Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, USA Data are available at the University of Bristol data repository, data.bris, at https://doi.org/10.5523/bris.1lwtezdrafm2e29fvz5dorzvj2. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 IEEE.

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N2 - Despite an ever increasing variety of soft sensors and actuators, there are only a few entirely soft robots that integrate both modalities into an autonomous system. Often, a minimum set of rigid components such as microcontrollers, are embedded into soft systems, compromising their flexibility. This has led to growing interest in entirely compliant versions of controllers for soft robots. In this work, we present the first integration of two such soft control systems: the soft, bistable valve and the soft matter computer. By combining them we allow information to pass from the pneumatic to the electrical domain, enabling control of electric soft actuators with pneumatic control signals. Our work is an important step towards the development of fully compliant robots and machines.

AB - Despite an ever increasing variety of soft sensors and actuators, there are only a few entirely soft robots that integrate both modalities into an autonomous system. Often, a minimum set of rigid components such as microcontrollers, are embedded into soft systems, compromising their flexibility. This has led to growing interest in entirely compliant versions of controllers for soft robots. In this work, we present the first integration of two such soft control systems: the soft, bistable valve and the soft matter computer. By combining them we allow information to pass from the pneumatic to the electrical domain, enabling control of electric soft actuators with pneumatic control signals. Our work is an important step towards the development of fully compliant robots and machines.

U2 - 10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479381

DO - 10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479381

M3 - Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

SN - 9781728177144

T3 - IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)

SP - 547

EP - 550

BT - 2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021

PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

ER -

Garrad MS, Feeney I, Conn AT , Rossiter JM, Nemitz M, Hauser H. An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots. In 2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 2021. p. 547-550. 9479381. (IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)). Epub 2021 Jul 12. doi: 10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479381

An all soft, electro-pneumatic controller for soft robots

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