具有腕足游泳及噴射推進運動的氣動軟性章魚機器人

Abstract

軟性機器人因為重量輕，高生物相容性，高順應性和低製造成本的優點，在最近引起相當大的注意力。它們在工業用夾爪，醫用器材和仿生科技的應用有重大的改進並創造了新的機會。特別是能夠模仿大自然動物運動模式的仿生軟性機器人展示了在嚴酷環境中有效率移動的潛力。舉例來說，具有相似於章魚的順應性且能夠模仿其游泳的軟性機器人，在運動中展現了良好的加速度及敏捷性。它可以有其中一項最有效率的水下運動方式。因此，這篇論文要設計且製造出能夠模仿自然界章魚的兩種運動模式的軟性機器人，分別為腳部游泳以及噴射推進。我們利用高順應性的彈性材料所做的章魚軟性機器人，具有八隻腳能夠划水以及漏斗管能夠進行噴射推進。 這個軟性機器人因為不同的運動模式讓它的腳有別於其他身體部位被區分出來。軟性機器人的腳在腔體內部壓力為150 kPa時能達到90度的彎曲角度。越大的彎曲角度能夠造成越大的參考面積以及運動的動力。這個軟性機器人也能夠利用噴射推進讓自己具有前進時的巨大動力。軟性機器人漏斗管內的矽膠管和電磁閥相連接，且壓縮空氣被用來當作是噴射推進的動力源。整個機器人能分別達到最大速率為16 cm/s的腳部游泳及34 cm/s的噴射推進。我們的軟性機器人在腳部游泳的方面，相比於先前的研究，因為具有更大的腳部彎曲角度而快了大約1.3倍。此外，它在噴射推進的方面，相比於另一個先前的研究，因為更直接的能量使用，速率也快了大約1.5倍。我們的軟性機器人在水下探勘的方面展現了非常大的潛力。

Soft robots have recently drawn great attention due to their advantages in light weight, high biocompatibility, high compliance and low manufacturing cost. Their applications in industrial grippers, medical devices and bioinspired technology have made significant improvement and created new opportunities. In particular, bioinspired soft robots, which can imitate locomotion of a natural creatures, demonstrate a great potential to efficiently move in severe environment. For instance, a soft robot, which has similar material compliance and can imitate the swimming of an octopus, shows great acceleration and dexterousness during the movement; it can have one of the most effective locomotion underwater. This thesis therefore is to design and fabricate a soft robot with the capability to emulate two swimming patterns of a natural octopus – arm swimming and jet propulsion underwater. Our octopus soft robot, made of elastomeric materials with great compliance, has eight arms for arm swimming, and as a siphon for jet propulsion. The soft robot is characterized for its arm and the whole robot with different swimming patterns. The soft robotic arms can attain a 90 degree bending angle when the internal pressure of chambers is 150 kPa. The large bending angle leads to the larger reference area, and the movement momentum. The soft robot can also perform jet propulsion, which contributes to the large momentum for moving forward. The silicone tube inside the soft robotic siphon is connected with a solenoid valve, and pressurized air is utilized as the power source of jet propulsion. The whole robot can attain 16 cm/s and 34 cm/s in the maximum speed from arm swimming and jetting, respectively. Our soft robot shows approximately 1.3 times faster in the arm swimming, compared to the one from existing research, because of the larger bending angle of our active arms. Besides, it also demonstrates approximately 1.5 times faster in the jet propulsion, compared to another from existing research, since the energy transfer efficiency of jet propulsion is high enough. The speed of our soft robot shows a great potential to explore underwater.