Musculoskeletal System Design, Fabrication and Modeling for Robotic Systems
Abstract
Bio-inspired design and fabrication of robots’ structures have several applications in unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), other terrestrial robots and morphing structures. The objectives of this project are: to design a novel 3D printable and bioinspired musculoskeletal system for actuation of soft robots and morphing structures; investigate the correlation of manufacturing process parameters on the performance; and understand the musculoskeletal system through analytical modeling and control. A modular joint design is presented, consisting of bone like structures, artificial muscles and cartilages (Fig.1). The modules can be cascaded to create complex soft robots that have a potential to provide unprecedented performance. The structures can be made of thermoplastic material infused with nanomaterials. Impregnating nanoparticles in thermoplastics improves the mechanical and electrical properties of the material –facilitating the manufacturing of structures or robots directly from computer aided design files. Artificial muscles can be made using fluid filled elastomer, or integrating coiled and twisted polymer muscle. The synthesized joint module will be extensively characterized and sample robotic system will be made and tested. For performance evaluation and fundamental material property studies, the composite joint system will be mathematically modeled based on multi-physics approach. As a case study, the proposed musculoskeletal system will be used in the development of a swimming soft robot and several testing will be carried out. The musculoskeletal system enables design and manufacturing of UUVs or UAVs as one system except the electronics part, in short period of time as we have much control on the geometry of the robot. The proposal is multi-disciplinary and will lead to a path for agile, complex robots, manufactured directly from a rapid manufacturing system. Using the novel design, manufacturing approach and computational tools, various joints of robots and morphing structures will be made and analyzed, and hence contributes to mobility research for ONR. The impact of the proposed work lies on the basic research in robotics, experimental data and modeling tools to improve our understanding of composite musculoskeletal system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512503
Entities
People
- Yonas Tadesse
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Texas at Dallas