<p>By using flexible and stretchable materials in place of
fixed components, soft robots can materially adapt or change to their
environment, providing built-in safeties for robotic operation around humans or
fragile, delicate objects. And yet, building a robot out of only soft and
flexible materials can be a significant challenge depending on the tasks that
the robot needs to perform, for example if the robot were to need to exert higher
forces (even temporarily) or self-report its current state (as it deforms
unexpectedly around external objects). Thus, the appeal of multifunctional
materials for soft robots, wherein the materials used to build the body of the
robot also provide actuation, sensing, or even simply electrical connections,
all while maintaining the original vision of environmental adaptability or safe
interactions. Multifunctional material systems are explored throughout the body
of this dissertation in three ways: (1) Sensor integration into high strain
actuators for state estimation and closed-loop control. (2) Simplified control
of multifunctional material systems by enabling multiple functions through a
single input stimulus (<i>i.e.</i>, only requiring one source of input power).
(3) Presenting a solution for the open challenge of controlling both well
established and newly developed thermally-responsive soft robotic materials
through an on-body, high strain, uniform, Joule-heating energy source. Notably,
these explorations are not isolated from each other as, for example, work
towards creating a new material for thermal control also facilitated embedded
sensory feedback. The work presented in this dissertation paves a way forward
for multifunctional material integration, towards the end-goal of
full-functioning soft robots, as well as (more broadly) design methodologies
for other safety-forward or adaptability-forward technologies.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12226964 |
| Date | 01 May 2020 |
| Creators | Raymond Adam Bilodeau (8787839) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Designing_Multifunctional_Material_Systems_for_Soft_Robotic_Components/12226964 |
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