Investigations on multifarious shape memory alloy (SMA) structures towards the development of Bio-inspired soft robots

Abstract

Conventional robots and machines are made of rigid materials that limit their ability to elastically deform and adapt their shape to external constraints and obstacles. Although they have the potential to be incredibly powerful and precise, these rigid robots tend to be highly specialized and rarely exhibit the rich multifunctionality of natural organisms [1-5]. The natural creatures are made of soft materials. Soft robotics is an emerging topic in the field of robotics which challenges the traditional engineering thinking. Using this technology, it can be possible to create robotic systems with flexible structures completely made of soft materials. Living creatures made of soft structures to move effectively in complex natural environments. These capabilities have inspired robotic engineers to incorporate soft material technologies into their designs. The goal is to endow robots with new, bioinspired capabilities that permit adaptive, flexible interactions with unpredictable environments. Incorporating soft technologies can potentially reduce the mechanical and algorithmic complexity involved in robot design. Incorporating soft material technologies will also expedite the evolution of robots that can safely interact with humans and natural environments. Soft robots contain little or no rigid material and are instead primarily composed of fluids, gels, soft polymers, and other easily deformable matter (Fig.1.1). Soft robots have the potential to change the way we construct intelligent systems. By using highly deformable and stretchable materials, we can build robots that safely interact with human operators and function in unstructured environments. Soft robots are composites of flexible materials that together give rise to entirely new modes of function and behavior, in many ways not unlike natural biology [6-10].