| 研究実績の概要 |
My research has made a smooth progress. A controllable robot finger based on MR and SMA technologies were designed and fabricated. Its implementation has several attractive features, and offers solutions to problems faced by the current soft robot finger practice. The replacement of the encapsulation elastomer with MRE provides an effective solution to reducing the responding time of the artificial muscle, significantly improving the operation efficiency and their practical value. The addition of the MR exoskeleton to the design of the finger contributes significantly to improving the holding up and grasping capabilities while at the same time enabling the finger stiffness to be controllable. All of these features and improvements have led to a significant progress in the soft robot finger area. Regarding the publications, 11 papers have been published during this period on the major journals in our research field. Regarding the aspect of presentations and visits, I have participated and given presentations in 16th International Conference on Flow Dynamics, Annual autumn symposium of the Japan Fluid Power System Society 2019, and 17th International Conference on Electrorheological Fluids and Magnetorheological Suspensions. I also visited Fuzhou University, China and University of Science and Technology China to communicate with my collaborators in September 2019. During these conferences and visits, I have published and promoted my research and obtained a lot of valuable knowledge and information for the ongoing project and my career.
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| 現在までの達成度 (区分) |
現在までの達成度 (区分)
2: おおむね順調に進展している
理由
An SMA artificial muscle, composed of three major components, the SMA wires, the backbone, and the regular MRE body, has been successfully built. A thermal model of the new artificial muscle has been built in COMSOL and its thermal dynamic property has been analyzed. The dynamic response property of the artificial muscle is tested as well, which verified the fast response speed of the proposed artificial muscle. An exoskeleton, composing of finger skeleton and MR joint, has been successfully built. The distribution of the magnetic field in the MR joint has been analyzed and its holding torque under different currents has been tested, which verified its property of large torque-volume ratio. By assembling the artificial muscle and the MR exoskeleton, a new MR figure has been built.
Currently, I am also developing a new artificial muscle using the SMA and liquid metal MREs (LMMRE). The LMMRE has much higher thermal conductivity than other elastomers due to the dispersed iron particles and liquid metal microdroplets, thus, the new artificial muscle built with SMA and LMMRE will response much quicker than other elastomer based SMA artificial muscle. In addition, as the resistant of the LMMRE is very sensitive to the its deformation, an electrode array will be designed on the LMMRE surface to make the artificial muscle capable of self-perceiving external force and then achieve toughing and feeling capabilities. I have built a SMA-LMMRE artificial muscle and I am building circuit and LabVIEW program for it.
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| 今後の研究の推進方策 |
I will finish the circuit building and programming for the new artificial muscle and after that, the new artificial muscle and MR exoskeleton will be assembled to be a finger for further testing. Firstly, the bending performance of the finger will be tested. The maximum bending angle and the response speed of the finger will be evaluated. Its self-perceiving capability to measure the holding or toughing force will be characterized as well. The load holding performance of the finger will be tested as well to demonstrate the effectiveness of the MRF joints. A new controller for the cooperation between the artificial muscle and the MRF joint with the finger skeleton will be developed and evaluated based on their characteristics. After the prototype and testing of the single finger, a prosthetic hand will be built using five of the designed fingers and a palm. The response speed, self-perceiving capability, maximum loading capability and the controller of the hand will be evaluated systematically.
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