A multimodal miniaturised soft robot for accessing remote areas by passive-flight and wall-climbing

Sriratanasak, Natthapol

A multimodal miniaturised soft robot for accessing remote areas by passive-flight and wall-climbing

Publication Date

July 18, 2024

Creator

Sriratanasak, Natthapol

Abstract

Soft crawling robots have been developed to access confined and difficult-to-reach areas. Those robots have attracted the interest of the research community with various solutions to address design, crawling strategy, and modelling. However, their capabilities are limited by their own size and moving speed showing that crossing large obstacles and remote operation are still challenges. Human intervention is strongly required to deploy robots directly to the target area to avoid obstacles and reduce operating time. As such, they cannot inspect or navigate confined space and hazardous area where they cannot be deployed close enough. This limitation motivates authors to develop a multimodal soft robot that can be delivered to remote areas, where a human cannot reach, and perform navigation afterward. In this thesis, we propose a novel multimodal Tasering Twin Soft Robot (TTSR), carrying two Soft Crawling Robots (SCRs), capable of i) passive flight and ii) wall climbing. Once the TTSR landed on the target wall, it deploys SCRs to the desired location. To satisfy both tasks, we propose reconfigurable design of SCRs using a novel bistable mechanism to maintain aerodynamic stability while flying and achieve wall-climbing once landed. To disengage SCRs, a detaching mechanism based on a shape-memory alloy is implemented. Each SCR is driven by two dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) and three electroadhesive (EA) feet. The analysis of bistable mechanism and output force under multidirectional deformation of DEA and aerodynamic performance of TTSR have been studied. To demonstrate multimodality, the TTSR with two SCRs was launched by pneumatic pressure and flew over an obstacle. While flying, the SCRs were folded compactly to reduce the air drag and perched on a wall 3 m away (50 times of body length) within 0.64 second. Once perched, the SCRs reconfigured themselves for crawling and separated from each other. After that, the SCRs crawled, performing planar motion, and reached predefined locations on the wall. Moreover, the SCR can move across 15o-slope dihedral surface and inverted surface.

Item Type

ethesis

Thesis Type

PhD

Supervisors

Axinte, Dragos

Dong, Xin

Mohammed, Abdelkhalick