Design and Prototyping of a Tip-Mounted Hybrid Magnetic Cap for Bio-inspired Soft Growing Robot
摘要
Pneumatically-driven Soft Growing Robots (SGR) are a new class of continuum robots, which take inspiration from vines, mimicking their capability to evolve along a path from the tip, while being intrinsically safe towards the environment. The SGRs’ capabilities can be empowered by providing them with the capability to mount sensors and tools at the tip, thus enabling many applications in unstructured environments, such as object transportation in constrained spaces. However, the tip position of SGRs changes over time during growth, making it challenging to keep tools attached at the tip in the desired configuration. An auxiliary device at the tip is required, which grows with the SGR without hindering the eversion or changing the robot’s designed shape. In this work, currently implemented designs in the literature for enabling SGRs tip-attachment are analyzed. Then, a novel tip-mounted Hybrid Magnetic Cap (HMC), composed of textile and rigid components, is presented; this dual nature makes the device both safe and efficient during all the SGR operative phases. To prove its effectiveness, this design is applied to a specific case study: cable delivery along a straight path. It is demonstrated how this tip-mounted HMC can successfully enable and automate such a delicate task in a very short time.