Dimuthu D. K. Arachchige

Dimuthu D. K. Arachchige

Soft mobile robots have emerged as a promising area of research with potential applications in various disciplines including but not limited to search-and-rescue, service, surveillance, explorations, and manufacturing. In this article, we provide a comprehensive review of the current state of soft mobile robot research, focusing on wheelless terrestrial locomotive systems. We include past and present developments in locomotion strategies, actuation methods, modeling approaches, and control systems. Further, we identify key research challenges that must be overcome to enable the widespread adoption of soft mobile robots in various applications. Overall, this article provides a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners interested in the field of soft mobile robots and soft robotics.

Dimuthu D. K. Arachchige, Isuru S. Godage

Soft robots are inherently compliant and have a strong potential to realize human-friendly and safe robots. Despite continued research highlighting the potential of soft robots, they remain largely confined to laboratory settings. In this work, inspired by spider monkeys' tails, we propose a hybrid soft robot (HSR) design. We detail the design objectives and methodology to improve the controllable stiffness range and achieve independent stiffness and shape control. We extend the curve parametric approach to We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed HSR has about a 100% stiffness range increase than a previous soft robot design with identical physical dimensions. In addition, we empirically map HSR's bending shape-pressure-stiffness and present an application example - a soft robotic gripper - to demonstrate the decoupled nature of stiffness and shape variations. Experimental results show that proposed HSR can be successfully used in applications where independent stiffness and shape control is desired.