Dong Huixu, Yang Haitao, Ding Shuo, Li Tong, Yu Haoyong
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Soft Robot. 2022 Dec;9(6):1198-1209. doi: 10.1089/soro.2021.0118. Epub 2022 Jun 7.
Animals have long captured the inspirations of researchers in robotics with their unrivaled capabilities of multimodal locomotion on land and in water, achieved by functionally versatile limbs. Conventional soft robots show infinite degrees-of-freedom (DOFs), making it hard to be actuated and conduct multiple movements especially for multimodal locomotion in different environments. An origami robot, which is capable of reversibly transforming the robotic shape by simple creases folding/unfolding, reveals advantages for imitating flexible movements of animals, thus drawing more and more attention. However, it poses substantial technological challenges for bioinspired design, sensing, and actuation of origami robots that can generate multimodal locomotion through performing complex morphologic deformation in different scenarios such as land and water. To relieve this issue, we propose a novel bioinspired amphibious origami machine with body sensing for multimodal locomotion. In this work, inspired by the peristalsis of inchworm and human swimming behaviors, a unique origami body with legs and origami arms is developed to enable the integrated robot to move both on land and in water. Instead of traditional electronic sensors, we design highly stretchable and foldable layer resistive sensor with conductive polymers coated onto the origami body to achieve robotic sensing such as obstacle detection. In addition, with detailed analysis, a self-designed pneumatic system of time division, multiplexing, and serialization is adopted to efficiently control the robot with high DOF. We eventually demonstrate that the fabricated origami robot successfully moves in amphibious environments, which is capable of crawling forward, turning right/left, and swimming. We expect that this work indicates contributions to advanced origami design, actuation control, and body sensor of the bioinspired robot with multimodal locomotion for broadly practical applications.
长期以来，动物凭借其功能多样的肢体在陆地和水中实现的无与伦比的多模式运动能力，一直激发着机器人领域研究人员的灵感。传统的软体机器人具有无限的自由度，这使得它们难以被驱动并进行多种运动，尤其是在不同环境中的多模式运动。折纸机器人能够通过简单的折痕折叠/展开可逆地改变机器人形状，在模仿动物的灵活运动方面显示出优势，因此越来越受到关注。然而，对于能够通过在陆地和水等不同场景中进行复杂形态变形来产生多模式运动的折纸机器人的仿生设计、传感和驱动，存在重大技术挑战。为了解决这个问题，我们提出了一种新型的具有身体传感功能的用于多模式运动的仿生两栖折纸机器人。在这项工作中，受尺蠖蠕动和人类游泳行为的启发，开发了一种独特的带有腿部和折纸手臂的折纸主体，以使集成机器人能够在陆地和水中移动。我们设计了一种高度可拉伸和可折叠的层电阻传感器，将导电聚合物涂覆在折纸主体上，以实现诸如障碍物检测等机器人传感，而不是传统的电子传感器。此外，通过详细分析，采用了自行设计的时分、复用和序列化气动系统，以高效地控制具有高自由度的机器人。我们最终证明，制造的折纸机器人在两栖环境中成功移动，能够向前爬行、右转/左转和游泳。我们期望这项工作为具有多模式运动的仿生机器人的先进折纸设计、驱动控制和身体传感器做出贡献，以实现广泛的实际应用。
