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A Rhythmic Activation Mechanism for Soft Multi-legged Robots

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Abstract

Compared to standard solutions, soft robotics presents enhanced adaptability to unpredictable and unstructured environments, encompassing advances in fabrication, modeling, and control. The absence of a general theory for the latter is one of the biggest challenges in the field, which constrains these robots’ employment in real-world applications. This research proposes the application of Scheduling by Multiple Edge Reversal (SMER) in the activation of soft legs to be applied in multi-legged robots. A soft device was developed to be tested as a robot’s leg to evaluate the proposed application. A logic controller for this device was designed using the SMER technique. Image processing techniques were used to assess the functionality of the proposed strategy, which demands limited resources. The vision tracking system is composed of a set of infrared-reflective patches, an infrared illuminator, and a pair of cameras with no infrared filters. Results revealed that it is possible to use SMER techniques to activate soft robotics systems and that the methods employed to develop and test the device were appropriate.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thanks the support of Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - FAPERJ; and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq.

Funding

This work was partially supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior do Brasil (CAPES, code 001) and by Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. PPEEL - Electrical Engineering Graduate Program, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca - CEFET/RJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Rafaela Aparecida Garcia Sampaio, Milena Faria Pinto & Diego Barreto Haddad

  2. NUPEM - Mechatronics Research Center, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca - CEFET/RJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabrício Lopes e Silva, Cristiano de Souza de Carvalho & Gabriel Matos Araujo

  3. COPPE - Systems Engineering and Computer Science Program, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Felipe Maia Galvão França

Authors
  1. Rafaela Aparecida Garcia Sampaio
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  2. Fabrício Lopes e Silva
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  3. Cristiano de Souza de Carvalho
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  4. Gabriel Matos Araujo
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  5. Milena Faria Pinto
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  6. Diego Barreto Haddad
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  7. Felipe Maia Galvão França
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Rafaela Aparecida Garcia Sampaio, Fabrício Lopes e Silva and Cristiano de Souza de Carvalho. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Rafaela Aparecida Garcia Sampaio and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Introduction section, and Background and Related Works section were performed by Milena Faria Pinto and Diego Barreto Haddad. Vision-based tracking system section was performed by Gabriel Matos Araujo. The Activation Strategy section was performed by Cristiano de Souza de Carvalho and Felipe Maia Galvão França. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rafaela Aparecida Garcia Sampaio.

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Garcia Sampaio, R.A., e Silva, F.L., de Carvalho, C.d.S. et al. A Rhythmic Activation Mechanism for Soft Multi-legged Robots. J Intell Robot Syst 101, 74 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-021-01345-x

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