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Innovative Technology in Soft Robotics: Material, Design and Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics and Automation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2023) | Viewed by 2357

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Interests: neurorobotics; cerebellum; computational neuroscience; bioinspired control systems; motor control

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Guest Editor
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy
Interests: neurorobotics; soft robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Dynamics & Control, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Interests: haptics; human perception; tele-operation systems; soft robotics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soft robotics is rapidly emerging as an alternative to traditional robotics thanks to recent advances in smart materials, nonlinear modelling, and machine learning. Over the last few years soft robotics has attracted a wide pool of researchers who worked to exploit the potentiality of soft robot technologies: inherent safety, compliance, and greater adaptability to the environment with a lower cost. Soft robotics technologies and systems may enable a wide range of activities, including interaction with humans and approach to complex environments. Their flexibility and adaptability make them appealing in various fields, including surgery, prosthetics, pain management, and space exploration.

The goal of this Special Issue on "Innovative Technology in Soft Robotics: Material, Design and Applications" is to gather design and control advances in soft robotics, considering innovative solutions to new challenges and applications.

We invite researchers to contribute with innovative methods for fabrication of soft bodies, new soft sensors and actuators, new design of mechanisms for soft robot motions and innovative approaches for control of such complex systems for future deployment in real-world environments.

We encourage original high-quality research articles and qualified reviews in all areas of soft robotics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Soft material creation, characterization, and modelling;
  • Flexible and transient electronics;
  • Control and simulation of highly deformable structures;
  • Biomechanics and control of soft animals and tissues;
  • Design and fabrication of conformable machines;
  • Soft actuators, grippers, and manipulators;
  • Design and manufacturing techniques;
  • Sensor development and integration;
  • Soft robotic assistive system;
  • Multi-material structures, including grading material properties;
  • Biologically inspired control approaches of soft robots.

Dr. Silvia Tolu
Dr. Egidio Falotico
Dr. Irene Kuling
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at mdpi.longhoe.net by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 3583 KiB  
Article
Design and Implementation of a Compliant Gripper for Form Closure of Diverse Objects
by Kyler C. Bingham, Matthew Hessler, Safal Lama and Taher Deemyad
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(17), 9677; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13179677 - 27 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2071
Abstract
This research presents a comprehensive study on the design and implementation of a flexible robotic gripper. Conventional grippers utilized in articulated robotic arms are often limited in their capabilities, being restricted to specific tasks or fixed object sizes. While soft grippers are a [...] Read more.
This research presents a comprehensive study on the design and implementation of a flexible robotic gripper. Conventional grippers utilized in articulated robotic arms are often limited in their capabilities, being restricted to specific tasks or fixed object sizes. While soft grippers are a viable option, they have limitations in terms of gras** objects across a wide range and providing complete coverage. In this study, a novel compressible gripper is developed to enable safe and secure gras** of objects with varying sizes and shapes within a wide range. The gripper features a gras** area measuring 14 cm × 6 cm, allowing complete coverage of objects within this surface area. The current prototype with 7 cm of compressibility demonstrates the ability to grasp objects with a width difference of 7 cm with a maximum thickness of 15 cm, enabling manipulation of objects with varying widths, as defined by user-programmable parameters. The functionality of the gripper is based on the compressibility of the 3D-printed thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material. The flexible part of the gripper can be easily interchanged, offering versatility by accommodating different thicknesses without the need to replace the entire gripper mechanism. The gripper system operates using an open-loop control system, enhancing user-friendliness. Experimental evaluation of the gripper involved the creation and analysis of a CAD model followed by the fabrication of a prototype. The prototype exhibited exceptional performance in gras** objects of diverse sizes, shapes, and textures, demonstrating the effectiveness of the developed soft gripper system. The scalability of the soft gripper enables seamless integration with various types of articulated robotic arms, while the maximum weight limit for objects will be defined based on the robotic arms’ limitations. The research findings highlight the promising capabilities of the compressible gripper in enhancing the versatility and efficiency of robotic gras** systems, offering a significant contribution to the field of robotics. Full article
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