Picella Sergio, van Riet Catharina M, Overvelde Johannes T B
Autonomous Matter Department, AMOLF, Amsterdam 1098 XG, Netherlands.
Institute for Complex Molecular Systems and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 5600 MB, Netherlands.
Sci Adv. 2024 Dec 20;10(51):eadr2433. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr2433.
Decision-making based on environmental cues is a crucial feature of autonomous systems. Embodying this feature in soft robots poses nontrivial challenges on both hardware and software that can undermine the simplicity and autonomy of such devices. Existing pneumatic electronics-free soft robots have so far mostly been approached by using system fluidic circuit architectures analogous to digital electronics. Instead, here we design dedicated pneumatic coding blocks equivalent to , , and software control statements, which are based on the analog nature of nonlinear mechanical components. We demonstrate that we can combine these coding blocks into programs to implement sequences and to control an electronics-free autonomous soft gripper that switches between behaviors based on interactions with the environment. As such, our strategy provides an alternative approach to designing complex behavior in soft robotics that is more reminiscent of how functionalities are also encoded in the body of living systems.
基于环境线索进行决策是自主系统的一个关键特性。在软体机器人中实现这一特性，在硬件和软件方面都带来了不小的挑战，可能会削弱此类设备的简易性和自主性。迄今为止，现有的无气动电子软体机器人大多采用类似于数字电子学的系统流体电路架构。相反，在此我们设计了与软件控制语句等效的专用气动编码模块，这些模块基于非线性机械部件的模拟特性。我们证明，我们可以将这些编码模块组合成程序，以实现序列，并控制一个无电子设备的自主软体抓手，该抓手可根据与环境的相互作用在不同行为之间切换。因此，我们的策略为软体机器人复杂行为的设计提供了一种替代方法，这种方法更类似于功能在生物系统体内的编码方式。
