Soft robotic fingers with embedded ionogel sensors and discrete actuation modes for somatosensitive manipulation

Ryan L. Truby*, Robert K. Katzschmann, Jennifer A. Lewis, Daniela Rus

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

Soft robotic grippers enable gentle, adaptive, and bioinspired manipulation that is simply not possible using traditional rigid robots. However, it has remained challenging to create multi-degree-of-freedom soft actuators with appropriate sensory capabilities for soft manipulators requiring greater dexterity and closed-loop control. In this work, we use embedded 3D printing to produce soft robotic fingers with discrete actuation modes and integrated ionogel soft sensors that provide proprioceptive and tactile sensing corresponding to each degree of freedom. With new readout electronics that streamline the measurement of sensor resistance, we evaluate the fingers' sensory feedback through free and blocked displacement experiments. We integrate three of our sensorized fingers together to create a soft manipulator with different grasping poses. Finally, we showcase the importance of the fingers' discrete actuation modes and integrated sensors via a closed-loop grasping study. Our methods demonstrate an enabling manufacturing platform that can be adapted to create other soft multi-DOF manipulators requiring somatosensory feedback for a variety of closed-loop and machine learning-based control algorithms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationRoboSoft 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages322-329
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781538692608
DOIs
StatePublished - May 24 2019
Event2019 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2019 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: Apr 14 2019Apr 18 2019

Publication series

NameRoboSoft 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics

Conference

Conference2019 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2019
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period4/14/194/18/19

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Materials Science (miscellaneous)
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Control and Optimization

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