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Biomimetics
Special Issues
Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots
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Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots

A special issue of Biomimetics (ISSN 2313-7673). This special issue belongs to the section "Locomotion and Bioinspired Robotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 7341

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yao Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: insect-computer hybrid systems; sports biomechanics; bioinspired mobile robotics
Dr. Yue Dong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: soft robots; programmable actuators; micromotors; robot swarm; biofilm therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Wenjie Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: reconfigurable modular robots; decentralized control; distributed planning; excessive disturbance attenuation; transfer reinforcement learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In parallel to recent developments in soft functional materials and flexible electronics, we have witnessed a rapid development of soft robots over the last decade. The bioinspired soft robot is an interdisciplinary research field that fuses material sciences, robotics and biology to establish novel robotic systems that enhance flexibility, agility and adaptability. The advent of soft materials and deformable structures in robotics has brought many distinct advantages, such as inherent compliance, embedded actuation, and monolithic motion/force transmission. Despite these rapid developments, many challenges still exist, including the efficient actuation of soft actuators, the improvement of payload capacity and the linearization of soft materials for precise control, etc.

This Special Issue on “Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots” aims to present and promote the latest results regarding all aspects of bioinspired robots with soft actuators, deformable structures and flexible sensors. We welcome a wide range of original research articles and topical reviews with insightful perspectives on the theme addressed.

Dr. Yao Li
Dr. Yue Dong
Dr. Wenjie Lu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomimetics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bioinspired robot design
  • bioinspired soft mechanisms
  • intelligent control
  • deformable materials
  • soft actuators
  • flexible electronics

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3834 KiB  
Article
The Functions of Phasic Wing-Tip Folding on Flapping-Wing Aerodynamics
by Yiming Li, Keyu Li, Fang Fu, Yao Li and Bing Li
Biomimetics 2024, 9(3), 183; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics9030183 - 18 Mar 2024
Viewed by 892
Abstract
Insects produce a variety of highly acrobatic maneuvers in flight owing to their ability to achieve various wing-stroke trajectories. Among them, beetles can quickly change their flight velocities and make agile turns. In this work, we report a newly discovered phasic wing-tip-folding phenomenon [...] Read more.
Insects produce a variety of highly acrobatic maneuvers in flight owing to their ability to achieve various wing-stroke trajectories. Among them, beetles can quickly change their flight velocities and make agile turns. In this work, we report a newly discovered phasic wing-tip-folding phenomenon and its aerodynamic basis in beetles. The wings’ flapping trajectories and aerodynamic forces of the tethered flying beetles were recorded simultaneously via motion capture cameras and a force sensor, respectively. The results verified that phasic active spanwise-folding and deployment (PASFD) can exist during flapping flight. The folding of the wing-tips of beetles significantly decreased aerodynamic forces without any changes in flapping frequency. Specifically, compared with no-folding-and-deployment wings, the lift and forward thrust generated by bilateral-folding-and-deployment wings reduced by 52.2% and 63.0%, respectively. Moreover, unilateral-folding-and-deployment flapping flight was found, which produced a lateral force (8.65 mN). Therefore, a micro-flapping-wing mechanism with PASFD was then designed, fabricated, and tested in a motion capture and force measurement system to validate its phasic folding functions and aerodynamic performance under different operating frequencies. The results successfully demonstrated a significant decrease in flight forces. This work provides valuable insights for the development of flapping-wing micro-air-vehicles with high maneuverability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots)
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19 pages, 5646 KiB  
Article
Interacting with Obstacles Using a Bio-Inspired, Flexible, Underactuated Multilink Manipulator
by Amit Prigozin and Amir Degani
Biomimetics 2024, 9(2), 86; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics9020086 - 1 Feb 2024
Viewed by 861
Abstract
With the increasing demand for robotic manipulators to operate in complex environments, it is important to develop designs that work in obstacle-rich environments and can navigate around obstacles. This paper aims to demonstrate the capabilities of a bio-inspired, underactuated multilink manipulator in environments [...] Read more.
With the increasing demand for robotic manipulators to operate in complex environments, it is important to develop designs that work in obstacle-rich environments and can navigate around obstacles. This paper aims to demonstrate the capabilities of a bio-inspired, underactuated multilink manipulator in environments with fixed and/or movable obstacles. To simplify the system design, a single rotational actuator is used at the base of the manipulator. We present a modeling method for flexible, multilink underactuated manipulators, including their interaction with obstacles. We also demonstrate how to plan a trajectory for the manipulator in environments with fixed obstacles. The robustness of the manipulator is examined by analyzing the effects of uncertainty in its initial state and the position of obstacles. Next, we demonstrate the performance of the manipulator in environments with movable obstacles and show the advantages of controlling the obstacles’ radii and positions. Lastly, we showcase the process of picking up an object in workspaces with obstacles. All the findings are supported by simulations as well as hardware experiments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots)
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15 pages, 13070 KiB  
Article
Bio-Inspired Proprioceptive Touch of a Soft Finger with Inner-Finger Kinesthetic Perception
by Xiaobo Liu, Xudong Han, Ning Guo, Fang Wan and Chaoyang Song
Biomimetics 2023, 8(6), 501; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics8060501 - 21 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1498
Abstract
In-hand object pose estimation is challenging for humans and robots due to occlusion caused by the hand and object. This paper proposes a soft finger that integrates inner vision with kinesthetic sensing to estimate object pose inspired by human fingers. The soft finger [...] Read more.
In-hand object pose estimation is challenging for humans and robots due to occlusion caused by the hand and object. This paper proposes a soft finger that integrates inner vision with kinesthetic sensing to estimate object pose inspired by human fingers. The soft finger has a flexible skeleton and skin that adapts to different objects, and the skeleton deformations during interaction provide contact information obtained by the image from the inner camera. The proposed framework is an end-to-end method that uses raw images from soft fingers to estimate in-hand object pose. It consists of an encoder for kinesthetic information processing and an object pose and category estimator. The framework was tested on seven objects, achieving an impressive error of 2.02 mm and 11.34 degrees for pose error and 99.05% for classification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots)
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23 pages, 8918 KiB  
Article
Wave-like Robotic Locomotion between Highly Flexible Surfaces and Comparison to Worm Robot Locomotion
by Dan Shachaf, Rotem Katz and David Zarrouk
Biomimetics 2023, 8(5), 416; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics8050416 - 7 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1277
Abstract
In a recent study, we developed a minimally actuated robot that utilizes wave-like locomotion and analyzed its kinematics. In this paper, we present an analysis of the robot’s locomotion between two highly flexible surfaces. Initially, we created a simulation model of the robot [...] Read more.
In a recent study, we developed a minimally actuated robot that utilizes wave-like locomotion and analyzed its kinematics. In this paper, we present an analysis of the robot’s locomotion between two highly flexible surfaces. Initially, we created a simulation model of the robot between two surfaces and determined its speed and the conditions of locomotion based on the flexibility of the surface, the geometrical parameters, and the coefficient of friction for horizontal locomotion and climbing at different angles. Our findings indicate that wave locomotion is capable of consistently advancing along the surface, even when the surface is highly flexible. Next, we developed an experimental setup and conducted multiple experiments to validate the accuracy of our simulation. The results indicate an average relative difference of approximately 11% between the speed and advance ratio of the wave crawling between the two surfaces of our simulation model and the experimental results were performed using an actual robot. Lastly, we compared the wave locomotion results to those of the worm locomotion and discovered that wave locomotion outperforms worm locomotion, especially at a higher surface flexibility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots)
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11 pages, 2918 KiB  
Article
Kinematic Behavior of an Untethered, Small-Scale Hydrogel-Based Soft Robot in Response to Magneto-Thermal Stimuli
by Wenlong Pan, Chongyi Gao, Chen Zhu, Yabing Yang and Lin Xu
Biomimetics 2023, 8(4), 379; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics8040379 - 19 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1240
Abstract
Fruit fly larvae, which exist widely in nature, achieve peristaltic motion via the contraction and elongation of their bodies and the asymmetric friction generated by the front and rear parts of their bodies when they are in contact with the ground. Herein, we [...] Read more.
Fruit fly larvae, which exist widely in nature, achieve peristaltic motion via the contraction and elongation of their bodies and the asymmetric friction generated by the front and rear parts of their bodies when they are in contact with the ground. Herein, we report the development of an untethered, magnetic, temperature-sensitive hydrogel-based soft robot that mimics the asymmetric micro-patterns of fruit-fly-larvae gastropods and utilizes cyclic deformation to achieve directional peristaltic locomotion. Due to Néel relaxation losses of nanomagnetic Fe3O4 particles, the hydrogel-based soft robot is capable of converting changes in external alternating magnetic stimuli into contracting and expanding deformation responses which can be remotely controlled via a high-frequency alternating magnetic field (AMF) to realize periodic actuation. Furthermore, the Fe3O4 particles included in the hydrogel-based soft robot cause it to follow a gradient magnetic field in confined liquid environments and can be coupled with AMFs for the targeted release of water-soluble drugs or targeted magnetic hyperthermia therapy (MHT). We believe that such a controlled motion can enable highly targeted drug delivery, as well as vascular disease detection and thrombus removal tasks, without the use of invasive procedures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots)
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15 pages, 5299 KiB  
Article
A Small-Scale Hopper Design Using a Power Spring-Based Linear Actuator
by Seon-Gyo Yang, Dong-Jun Lee, Chan Kim and Gwang-Pil Jung
Biomimetics 2023, 8(4), 339; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics8040339 - 1 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1127
Abstract
Hopping locomotion has the potential to enable small-scale robots to maneuver lands quickly while overcoming obstacles bigger than themselves. To make this possible, in this paper, we propose a novel design of a high-power linear actuator for a small-scale hopper. The key design [...] Read more.
Hopping locomotion has the potential to enable small-scale robots to maneuver lands quickly while overcoming obstacles bigger than themselves. To make this possible, in this paper, we propose a novel design of a high-power linear actuator for a small-scale hopper. The key design principle of the linear actuator is to use a power spring and an active clutch. The power spring provides a near constant torque along the wide range of output displacement. The active clutch controls the moving direction and operation timing of the linear actuator, which enables the hopper to take off at the right timing. As a result, the hopper has a size of 143 mm, a mass of 45.9 g, and hops up to 0.58 m. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Fabrication and Control of Bioinspired Soft Robots)
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