Department of Mechanical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, China.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, UCLA, Los Angeles, California.
Soft Robot. 2020 Aug;7(4):512-520. doi: 10.1089/soro.2018.0134. Epub 2020 Jan 28.
Some applications are very sensitive to the weight of the robot, such as space manipulation or any untethered mobile manipulation. In this article, we designed a five-module unilaterally bending serial manipulator with length of 32 cm and a weight of only 18 g. The manipulator is driven by dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). Each module consists of a spatially closed tubular structure, which has the capability of large deformation while simultaneously maintaining torsional rigidity. The design is based on the buckling of columns. To achieve global deformation continuously, each module was controlled independently by a multichannel high-voltage power supply. As a demo, the manipulator was able to enter and exit a narrow L-shaped pipe. Experiments demonstrate that the manipulator driven by spatial DEAs can be super lightweight and can realize large continuous deformation.
有些应用对机器人的重量非常敏感，例如空间操作或任何无绳移动操作。在本文中，我们设计了一种五模块的单侧弯曲串联式机械手，其长度为 32 厘米，重量仅为 18 克。该机械手由介电弹性体致动器（DEA）驱动。每个模块都由一个空间封闭的管状结构组成，该结构具有大变形的能力，同时保持扭转刚度。该设计基于柱的屈曲。为了实现连续的整体变形，每个模块都由一个多通道高压电源独立控制。作为一个演示，机械手能够进入和退出一个狭窄的 L 形管。实验表明，由空间 DEA 驱动的机械手可以超轻量，并能实现大的连续变形。
