EFRI C3 SoRo: Soft, Strong, and Safe Configurable Robots for Diverse Manipulation Tasks

EFRI C3 SoRo：柔软、坚固且安全的可配置机器人，适用于各种操作任务

• 批准号: 1830901
• 负责人: Daniela Rus
• 金额: $ 200万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1830901&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EFRI; C3; SoRo; Soft; Strong

This project seeks to extend our understanding of the principles underlying the design and control of effective soft robots. Soft robots and muscle-like soft actuators coupled with agile control strategies will enable new manipulation and locomotion capabilities currently only found in nature, and allow robots and humans to safely collaborate. Today's industrial manipulators enable rapid and precise assembly, but these robots are physically isolated, to ensure the safety of any humans nearby. In contrast, the bodies of soft robots are made of intrinsically soft and/or extensible materials, such as silicone rubbers or fabrics, and are therefore safe for interaction with humans and animals. Soft robots have a continuously deformable structure with muscle-like actuation that emulates key features of biological systems and provides them with a relatively large number of degrees of freedom as compared to their hard-bodied counterparts. Soft robots have capabilities beyond what is possible with today's rigid-bodied robots. For example, soft-bodied robots can move in more natural ways that include complex bending and twisting curvatures that are not restricted to the traditional rigid body kinematics of existing robotic manipulators. Their bodies can deform in a continuous way, providing theoretically infinite degrees of freedom and allowing them to adapt their shape to their task, for example, conforming to natural terrain or forming enveloping grasps. Soft robots have also been shown to be capable of rapid agile maneuvers and can change their stiffness to achieve a task- or environment-specific impedance. Current research on device-level and algorithmic aspects of soft robots has resulted in a range of novel soft devices. This project will derive a systematic mathematical framework to model and control soft robots and will use the resulting algorithms to perform manipulation tasks with a wide variety of delicacy and strength requirements. The results will have potential uses in manufacturing, warehouse and supply chain automation, and everyday home activities such as cooking and cleaning. These soft, strong, and safe robots will have potential application in assisted care for the elderly or disabled, and for physical therapy. This project uses the unique features of soft robots to continue the Principal Investigators' track record of outreach and educational activities that excite young students about STEM careers.In the recent past, the soft robotics community has explored many different component hardware technologies, however fundamental algorithmic obstacles to their practical use remain challenging. Currently there is an artificial divide between control strategies for rigid and soft robots; rigid robots use high-bandwidth control of contact forces and contact geometry, while soft robots rely almost entirely on open-loop interactions, mediated by material properties, to govern the resulting forces and configurations. This project will bridge this gap by developing optimization-based control for soft robots, via approximate dynamic models of the soft interface, based on representations with a fidelity customized to the task. The proposed class of soft, strong, and safe robots will be designed, fabricated, and controlled by co-developing muscle-like actuation along with internal and contact models and associated planning and control strategies. An innovative new artificial muscle design allows customization of actuators to specific tasks, through systematic modular design. The modeling effort will focus on contact-rich behaviors of the soft robot with the environment, both for delicate touch and manipulation, and for high-force power grasps. Such a combination of soft and strong has not been fully addressed in the soft robotics community and will allow soft robots to interact safely and effectively with people in unprecedented applications.This project is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) and the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在扩展我们对有效软机器人设计和控制的原则的理解。软机器人和类似肌肉的软执行器以及敏捷控制策略将使当前只有在自然界中发现的新操纵和运动功能，并允许机器人和人类安全地进行协作。当今的工业操纵器可以快速，精确地组装，但是这些机器人是物理上孤立的，以确保附近任何人的安全。相比之下，软机器人的体是由内在的柔软和/或可扩展的材料制成的，例如有机硅橡胶或织物，因此可以安全地与人类和动物的相互作用。软机器人具有连续变形的结构，具有类似肌肉的致动，可以模仿生物系统的关键特征，并为其与坚硬的对应物相比，为其提供了相对较大的自由度。软机器人具有当今身材僵硬的机器人的功能。例如，柔软的机器人可以以更自然的方式移动，包括复杂的弯曲和扭曲曲率，这些曲线不仅限于现有机器人操纵剂的传统刚体运动学。他们的身体可以连续变形，提供理论上无限程度的自由度，并允许他们适应自己的任务，例如，符合自然地形或形成包围的抓地力。软机器人还显示出能够快速敏捷的操作，并且可以改变其刚度以实现任务或环境特定的阻抗。当前对软机器人设备级别和算法方面的研究导致了一系列新型的软设备。该项目将得出一个系统的数学框架来建模和控制软机器人，并将使用所得算法来执行具有各种精致和强度要求的操纵任务。结果将在制造，仓库和供应链自动化以及日常家庭活动（例如烹饪和清洁）中具有潜在用途。这些柔软，坚固且安全的机器人将在老年人或残疾人的辅助护理以及物理疗法中潜在地应用。该项目使用软机器人的独特功能来继续主要研究人员的外展和教育活动的记录，使年轻学生对STEM职业充满活力。在最近，Soft Robotics社区探索了许多不同的组件硬件技术，但是基本的算法障碍对其实际使用仍然具有挑战性。目前，刚性机器人和软机器人的控制策略之间存在人工鸿沟。刚性机器人使用对接触力的高带宽控制和接触几何形状，而软机器人几乎完全依靠材料特性介导的开环相互作用来控制最终的力和配置。该项目将通过根据软件的近似动态模型来基于对任务定制的忠诚度来开发对软机器人的优化控制的差距。通过共同开发类似于肌肉的驱动以及内部和联系模型以及相关的计划和控制策略，将设计，制造和控制拟议的软机器人类别。创新的新型人造肌肉设计允许通过系统的模块化设计将执行器定制为特定任务。建模工作将集中于与环境的软机器人的接触式行为，无论是微妙的触摸和操纵，以及高强度的掌握率。这种柔软和强大的结合尚未在软机器人社区中得到充分解决，并且将允许软机器人与前所未有的应用中的人们安全有效地互动。该项目由国家科学基金会，新兴的边境和多学科活动办公室和多学科活动办公室（EFMA）和US AIR FORICATIC ISSICTION ISSICTION（EFMA）共同赞助。通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来支持。

项目成果

Simulation and Fabrication of Soft Robots with Embedded Skeletons

嵌入式骨架软体机器人的仿真与制造

• DOI: 10.1109/icra46639.2022.9811844
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
• 作者: Bern, James M.;Zargarbashi, Fatemeh;Zhang, Annan;Hughes, Josie;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Model-based dynamic feedback control of a planar soft robot: trajectory tracking and interaction with the environment

• DOI: 10.1177/0278364919897292
• 发表时间: 2020-01-11
• 期刊: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS RESEARCH
• 影响因子: 9.2
• 作者: Della Santina, Cosimo;Katzschmann, Robert K.;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Control Oriented Modeling of Soft Robots: The Polynomial Curvature Case

• DOI: 10.1109/lra.2019.2955936
• 发表时间: 2020-04-01
• 期刊: IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Della Santina, Cosimo;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Scaling Up Soft Robotics: A Meter-Scale, Modular, and Reconfigurable Soft Robotic System

• DOI: 10.1089/soro.2020.0123
• 发表时间: 2021-03-25
• 期刊: SOFT ROBOTICS
• 影响因子: 7.9
• 作者: Li, Shuguang;Awale, Samer A.;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela

Extensible High Force Manipulator For Complex Exploration

用于复杂探索的可扩展高力机械臂

• DOI: 10.1109/robosoft48309.2020.9116024
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: IEEE Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft
• 作者: Hughes, Josie;Santina, Cosmio Della;Rus, Daniela
• 通讯作者: Rus, Daniela