2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Multimode Frictional Anisotropic Skin for Supporting Locomotion of A Snake-like Soft-bodied Robot on Various Frictional Ground Surfaces
| Project/Area Number |
20K14690
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
タ デゥックトゥン 東京大学, 大学院工学系研究科(工学部), 特任研究員 (20869226)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | anisotropic friction / snake-like / soft-robot / locomotion / simulation / body design / fabrication |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The achievement of the project in 2021 was finishing the simulator for the locomotion of the snake-like soft-bodied robot. The simulator focuses on switching the frictional patterns on the skin of the robot to realize different locomotion speeds. In combination with the experiment on real 3D printed robots, the simulation closely matches the locomotion of the real robots. This result is published in IPSJ Journal of Information Processing as follows:
T. D. Ta, T. Umedachi, M. Suzuki, and Y. Kawahara, “A Printable Soft-bodied Wriggle Robot with Frictional 2D-Anisotropy Surface,” Journal of Information Processing (JIP), Vol.30, pp.201-208, Mar. 2022. DOI:10.2197/ipsjjip.30.201.
Additionally, in a venture to find a better controlling mechanism for the soft-bodied robot, we published an article on reservoir computing for the soft-bodied robot as a part of the research project.
C. Caremel, M. Ishige, T. D. Ta, Y. Kawahara, “Echo States Network for Soft Actuator Control,” Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, Special Issue on Science of Soft Robots, Vol.34, No.2, pp. 413-421, Apr. 2022. DOI:10.20965/jrm.2022.p0413.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
I spent 2021 on refining the calculation to better simulate the locomotion of the real snake-like soft-robot. Due to COVID-19, the difficulties in setting up the experiment environment caused some delays in the fabrication of the real soft robots.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The current research project is extended for one year. In this one year, I will proceed with fabricating the real robot and setting up the experiment environment. After modeling the behavior of the multimode anisotropic frictional surface, it is possible to use the model to simulate and provide feedback to the design of the robot body.
I will investigate thoroughly the mechanisms to actuate and control the anisotropic frictional surface. This part is important to dynamically change the frictional pattern on-the-fly.
Finally, I will integrate the multimode anisotropic frictional surface into the snake-like soft-bodied robot. This will help the robot to move with different locomotion gaits depending on the environment.
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| Causes of Carryover |
We need the budget for next fiscal year to finalize the experiment and publish the research result. In the next fiscal year, the budget will be used for setting up robot locomotion observation environment, collecting data, and manuscript publishing.
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Research Products
(3 results)
