Nguyen Chi Cong, Hoang Trung Thien, Davies James, Phan Phuoc Thien, Thai Mai Thanh, Nicotra Emanuele, Abed Amr Al, Tran Hien A, Truong Thanh An, Sharma Bibhu, Ji Adrienne, Zhu Kefan, Wang Chun Hui, Phan Hoang-Phuong, Lovell Nigel Hamilton, Do Thanh Nho
Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Tyree Institute of Health Engineering (IHealthE), UNSW Sydney, Kensington Campus, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
College of Engineering and Computer Science, VinUniversity, Hanoi, 100000, Vietnam.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024 Oct;11(39):e2405610. doi: 10.1002/advs.202405610. Epub 2024 Aug 19.
Flexible robotic systems (FRSs) and wearable user interfaces (WUIs) have been widely used in medical fields, offering lower infection risk and shorter recovery, and supporting amiable human-machine interactions (HMIs). Recently, soft electric, thermal, magnetic, and fluidic actuators with enhanced safety and compliance have innovatively boosted the use of FRSs and WUIs across many sectors. Among them, soft hydraulic actuators offer great speed, low noise, and high force density. However, they currently require bulky electric motors/pumps, pistons, valves, rigid accessories, and complex controllers, which inherently result in high cost, low adaptation, and complex setups. This paper introduces a novel soft fibrous syringe architecture (SFSA) consisting of two or more hydraulically connected soft artificial muscles that enable electricity-free actuation, motorless control, and built-in sensing ability for use in FRSs and WUIs. Its capabilities are experimentally demonstrated with various robotic applications including teleoperated flexible catheters, cable-driven continuum robotic arms, and WUIs. In addition, its sensing abilities to detect passive and active touch, surface texture, and object stiffness are also proven. These excellent results demonstrate a high feasibility of using a current-free and motor-less control approach for the FRSs and WUIs, enabling new methods of sensing and actuation across the robotic field.
柔性机器人系统（FRS）和可穿戴用户界面（WUI）已在医疗领域广泛应用，具有较低的感染风险和较短的恢复时间，并支持友好的人机交互（HMI）。最近，具有更高安全性和顺应性的软电、热、磁和流体致动器创新性地推动了FRS和WUI在许多领域的应用。其中，软液压致动器具有速度快、噪音低和力密度高的优点。然而，它们目前需要笨重的电动马达/泵、活塞、阀门、刚性附件和复杂的控制器，这必然导致成本高、适应性低和设置复杂。本文介绍了一种新型的软纤维注射器架构（SFSA），它由两个或更多液压连接的软人工肌肉组成，能够实现无电驱动、无电机控制和内置传感能力，用于FRS和WUI。通过各种机器人应用，包括遥控柔性导管、缆索驱动连续体机器人手臂和WUI，对其性能进行了实验验证。此外，还证明了其检测被动和主动触摸、表面纹理和物体刚度的传感能力。这些优异的结果表明，在FRS和WUI中使用无电流和无电机控制方法具有很高的可行性，为机器人领域带来了新的传感和驱动方法。
