Soft Robotics
We have developed a layered manufacturing process that can be used to rapidly create soft inflatable robots. Sheets of textiles and a thermal adhesive film are stacked and then bonded in a heat press or oven. With this, we have made several origami-inspired inflatable actuators, structures with embedded sensors, and a robotic arm. These are detailed in the publications:
A Layered Manufacturing Approach for Soft and Soft-Rigid Hybrid Robots - HD Yang, AT Asbeck, Soft Robotics 7 (2), 218-232, 2020. (Link);
Design and Characterization of a Modular Hybrid Continuum Robotic Manipulator - HD Yang, A Asbeck, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics 25 (6), 2812-2823, 2020. (Link);
Modeling and Analysis of a High-Displacement Pneumatic Artificial Muscle with Integrated Sensing - HD Yang, BT Greczek, AT Asbeck, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5, 136, 2018. (Link).