Combining Locomotion and Grasping Functionalities in Soft Robots

Abstract

In recent years, thefield of soft robotics has grown considerably, demonstratingrobots with advanced locomotion capabilities as well as robust grasping andmanipulation with respect to their rigid counterparts. The combination of loco-motion and grasping capabilities entails a unique set of challenges in soft robo-tics that have not been fully explored yet, such as the capability to carry a payloadwithout compromising its motion capabilities, and how to adjust changes in thecenter of mass of the robot. Herein, a soft robotic platform is proposed thatdemonstrates simultaneous locomotion and grasping. The challenges that sucha soft robot would encounter are explored in terms of stability of the robot whilesupporting a payload and variations in the location of the center of mass. Therobot has 13 independently controllable degrees of freedom to study differentlocomotion and grasping strategies. A passive stiffening methodology is alsopresented that allows the robot body to statically sustain up to 7.7 times its bodyweight (BW), and to walk carrying a payload up to 100% times its BW.