Tesi etd-05312022-140531
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Tipo di tesi
Dottorato
Autore
DAS, RIDDHI
URN
etd-05312022-140531
Titolo
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SOFT BURROWING ROBOT INSPIRED BY EARTHWORMS
Settore scientifico disciplinare
ING-IND/34
Corso di studi
Istituto di Biorobotica - BIOROBOTICS
Commissione
relatore Prof. DARIO, PAOLO
Membro Dott.ssa MAZZOLAI, BARBARA
Membro Dott.ssa MAZZOLAI, BARBARA
Parole chiave
- bio-inspiration
- bioinspired robot
- burrowing
- earthworm
- peristalsis
- soft robot
Data inizio appello
21/07/2022;
Disponibilità
parziale
Riassunto analitico
Robotic locomotion below the surface of the earth is still an unsolved topic and requires innovative design principles to solve the problem. Nature provides a number of examples of living beings that implement different strategies based on their morphologies to move inside the compact or confined medium. Among legless organisms, earthworms are natural burrowers that, in spite of possessing an entirely soft body, are capable of traversing and burrowing within the soil. Earthworm locomotion involves repeated penetration-expansion cycles driven by peristalsis of pressurized coelomic fluid. The radial relaxation and contraction of longitudinal muscles result in localized radial expansion of the earthworm hydrostatic skeleton used for expanding cavities and anchoring during axial penetration. Local radial contraction is used to elongate earthworm hydrostatic skeleton for more efficient axial penetration of soil. Due to these unique features, a growing number of researchers have been imitating peristaltic crawling to develop robots for targeted operations such as pipe-crawling, endoscopy, understanding locomotion, etc. Though the natural environment of the earthworm is below soil, most of these robots have focused on achieving locomotion above the ground. Since the earthworm natural habitat is soil, more research should focus on understanding earthworm-soil biomechanics and biophysics, and then on the translation of those principles into a bio-inspired functional robot.
In this thesis, I present a soft earthworm-inspired robot based on McKibben actuators. The system behaves differently based on the angle of the braid that makes the actuator and generates two different kind of elongation and compression waves. The robot is able to locomote both on planar surface and in granular medium by changing the frequency of the gait pattern. An insight on the interaction of the robot with different media due to variation in wave’s patterns has been put forward.
Furthermore, I design and develop a peristaltic soft actuator based on the antagonistic function of circular and longitudinal muscles on a constant volume chamber in earthworms. The single actuator changes its configuration from a neutral state to two active states based on positive or negative pressure. The actuators are characterized based on the type and quantity of encapsulated fluid. Based on the results, I assembled a peristaltic robot and characterized its locomotion abilities through experiments performed over different terrains. The experimental trials with the robot allowed also investigation and validation of the role of friction by attaching passive artificial scales to the robot’s ventral side, analogously to the earthworm setae. This study opens a new method for developing a peristaltic earthworm-like soft robot and provides a better understanding of locomotion in different environments.
In this thesis, I present a soft earthworm-inspired robot based on McKibben actuators. The system behaves differently based on the angle of the braid that makes the actuator and generates two different kind of elongation and compression waves. The robot is able to locomote both on planar surface and in granular medium by changing the frequency of the gait pattern. An insight on the interaction of the robot with different media due to variation in wave’s patterns has been put forward.
Furthermore, I design and develop a peristaltic soft actuator based on the antagonistic function of circular and longitudinal muscles on a constant volume chamber in earthworms. The single actuator changes its configuration from a neutral state to two active states based on positive or negative pressure. The actuators are characterized based on the type and quantity of encapsulated fluid. Based on the results, I assembled a peristaltic robot and characterized its locomotion abilities through experiments performed over different terrains. The experimental trials with the robot allowed also investigation and validation of the role of friction by attaching passive artificial scales to the robot’s ventral side, analogously to the earthworm setae. This study opens a new method for developing a peristaltic earthworm-like soft robot and provides a better understanding of locomotion in different environments.
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