Authors: James Wade, Chris Paul
Mentors: Nathan Usevitch
Insitution: Brigham Young University
Soft Robotics offer significant advantages when completing certain tasks compared to other robots and methods. Compliance, adaptability, and energy efficiency are a few of the major advantages. On the moon, where safety, volume and versatility are of high importance, soft robotics may find an innovative niche. NASA’s BIG Idea Challenge for 2024 incentivizes creating new innovative soft robot designs.
Our research group is building our facility mentor, Nathan Usevitch’s, work at Stanford University. Doctor Usevitch and his cohort developed an octahedral, inflated robot composed of multiple tubes folded into triangular shapes in a truss-like structure. Each triangle consisted of a long inflatable tube and 3 motorized modules at the nodes of the triangle. The motorized nodes (consisting of a DC motor and rollers) roll along the length of the tube, lengthening one edge of the triangle while shortening the other. By attaching multiple triangles to each other in geometric shapes, flexible structures are created that can adapt their shape to the desired need. Because this system has a constant inflated volume, no external air compressor is necessary, allowing for untethered movement. The bulk of the mechanical work is performed by electric motors, providing a higher energy efficiency than a system of repeated inflation. Furthermore, this design is compactly stored when deflated, optimal for transport into space.
To build on this design and optimize it for use on the moon, our research group will make the following changes and improvements:
- Developing the physical prototype. This will enable robust and dynamic movement and the support of large loads
- Develop a simulation tool that allows us to explore different configurations of the robot for different tasks
- Develop a joint system that allows an astronaut to quickly reconfigure the triangles into different structures based on the required task
- Develop a control approach that accounts for the underdamped dynamics of large inflatable structures
Through our research, we hope to expand the possibilities of soft robotics. We are synthesizing the advantages of traditional robotics (robustness, untethered motion) with the unique strengths of soft robotics (flexibility, adaptability, cost efficiency).