Kinematics Of Soft Objects And Computational Design Of Homogeneous Muscle-Driven Soft Robots

Compared with traditional rigid robots,soft robots have better flexibility,adaptability,and environmental compatibility.They have become a new research hotspot in the field of bioinspired robot in recent years.Imitating the structure of biological muscles and tendons,muscle-driven soft robots have good performance.Since the research on soft robotics is still in its infancy,it lacks general kinematic modeling and design methods.This thesis focuses on homogeneous muscle-driven soft robots(HMDSR)designing and develops a kinematic modeling and computational design framework for them.The organization of this thesis is as follows:1.Deformation and geometry description of HMDSR.With the help of the continuum mechanics theory,mechanical characteristics are described by deformation gradient tensor and energy density function for hyperelastic materials.Then,discretized deformation description of HMDSR is achieved based on the piecewise linear hypothesis and triangular meshing tool.2.Deformation modeling and simulation methods for HMDSR.Simulation of HMDSRs' deformation caused by external driving points(external-driven problem)and by the contraction of the internal muscle units(internal-driven problem)is achieved based on constitutive models for hyperelastic materials and optimization methods.3.Computational design of HMDSR.Computational design aims to guide the determination of design parameters by analyzing the mathematical model of the research object with optimization algorithms.This thesis proposes several algorithms that can infer the design parameters from expected result given by designers of HMDSR and implements a design process that solves the optimal muscles' layout and contraction to achieve that expected deformation reversely with mentioned deformation models.4.Development of integrated design software for HMDSRs.Taking the deformation simulation and computational design algorithms of HMDSR as the core,a multi-functional and multi-task design-oriented software is implemented to assist users in interactive way.5.Construction of HMDSRs' experimental platform and algorithm verification.As an example of the research object,a kind of HMDSR equipping a kind of modular muscle unit driver is fabricated.Algorithms are verified and analyzed with a kind of quantitative indicator evaluating the fitting degree between algorithms' output and experiment results.Modeling,simulation,and computational design methods of HMDSRs proposed in this thesis provide designers of soft robots with a set of theoretical frameworks and practical tools for analysis and design,which have practicality for related works.