TY - JOUR
T1 - Continuum Robotic Caterpillar with Wirelessly Powered Shape Memory Alloy Actuators
AU - McCaffrey, Colm
AU - Umedachi, Takuya
AU - Jiang, Weiwei
AU - Sasatani, Takuya
AU - Narusue, Yoshiaki
AU - Niiyama, Ryuma
AU - Kawahara, Yoshihiro
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JST ERATO grant no. JPMJER1501, Japan, and KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas ??Science of Soft Robot?? project funded by JSPS under grant no. 18H05467. In addition, this work was funded by the EU ERASMUS Mundus TEAM Exchange program.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2020, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2020.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Wireless power transfer (WPT) has the significant potential for soft-bodied continuum robots to extend the operational time limitlessly and reduce weight. However, rigid power receiver coils, widely used in WPT, hinder the continuum deformation of the robot, and as a result, the function realization using the continuum deformation (e.g., locomotion) is impaired. Therefore, this article introduces that a soft-bodied continuum robot can be designed by using thin film receiver coils and an inductively coupled wireless powering solution without sacrificing the continuum deformation and locomotion ability. A system is described for powering and controlling a soft robotic caterpillar consisting of nothing more than its continuum structure, actuators, and thin/flexible power receiving coils.
AB - Wireless power transfer (WPT) has the significant potential for soft-bodied continuum robots to extend the operational time limitlessly and reduce weight. However, rigid power receiver coils, widely used in WPT, hinder the continuum deformation of the robot, and as a result, the function realization using the continuum deformation (e.g., locomotion) is impaired. Therefore, this article introduces that a soft-bodied continuum robot can be designed by using thin film receiver coils and an inductively coupled wireless powering solution without sacrificing the continuum deformation and locomotion ability. A system is described for powering and controlling a soft robotic caterpillar consisting of nothing more than its continuum structure, actuators, and thin/flexible power receiving coils.
KW - wireless power transfer (WPT)
KW - soft-bodied robotics
KW - autonomous mobile robot
KW - shape memory alloy (SMA) coil
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091614156&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/soro.2019.0090
DO - 10.1089/soro.2019.0090
M3 - Article
C2 - 32223590
SN - 2169-5172
VL - 7
SP - 700
EP - 710
JO - Soft Robotics
JF - Soft Robotics
IS - 6
ER -