Soft robotics is an area of robotics that is becoming increasingly popular and involves the creation of robots that are more durable, flexible, and safer to be around. Many robots built using soft robotics will in some way mimic that of a human or other animal such as an octopus. Now, Swiss researchers have developed a robotic exoskeleton using soft robotics’ techniques.
The team at the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne concentrated on making the robots as soft as possible so that they were similar to muscle tissue. Eventually, they hope to develop medical devices that can bend and stretch more naturally and be used commercially worldwide.
These particular robots consist of elastic materials that are molded into small tunes and injected with air allowing them to move life-like. Currently, the team is working with physical therapists to design a back-support belt that’s fitted with clusters of the actuators that could help to restore stroke victims’ motor sensitivity.
The research appears to be going well and will continue as the team now work towards making the air pump small enough to fir directly onto the belt. To see how the air-filled actuators would deform, the team created a model to demonstrate what would happen depending on their size, shape, and material. The results showed that the robots should be able to tolerate pressure and have a little risk of becoming damaged due to their air-filled, rigid, structure.
