A Novel Modular Cable-Driven Soft Robotic Arm with Multi-Segment Reconfigurability

2026-03-02

AI Summary

This work addresses the limitations of conventional soft robotic arms in scalability, workspace coverage, and the balance between compliance and rigidity, which hinder their adaptability to diverse tasks. The authors propose a modular cable-driven soft robotic arm featuring a stacked multi-segment architecture that enables independent actuation and morphological reconfiguration, supporting on-demand extension. By integrating soft silicone materials, embedded tendon channels, and a dual-helix protective tendon design—combined with a tunable stiffness mechanism—the study achieves, for the first time, modular integration and independent control of multiple soft segments. Experimental results demonstrate that a three-segment configuration expands the planar workspace by 13-fold and increases volume by 38.9-fold compared to a single segment, while also revealing the influence of silicone hardness on compliance and load-bearing capacity.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Computer Vision: Multi-modal Vision
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments

Abstract

This paper presents a novel, modular, cable-driven soft robotic arm featuring multi-segment reconfigurability. The proposed architecture enables a stackable system with independent segment control, allowing scalable adaptation to diverse structural and application requirements. The system is fabricated from soft silicone material and incorporates embedded tendon-routing channels with a protective dual-helical tendon structure. Experimental results showed that modular stacking substantially expanded the reachable workspace: relative to the single-segment arm, the three-segment configuration achieved up to a 13-fold increase in planar workspace area and a 38.9-fold increase in workspace volume. Furthermore, this study investigated the effect of silicone stiffness on actuator performance. The results revealed a clear trade-off between compliance and stiffness: softer silicone improved bending flexibility, while stiffer silicone improved structural rigidity and load-bearing stability. These results highlight the potential of stiffness tuning to balance compliance and strength for configuring scalable, reconfigurable soft robotic arms.

Problem

• soft robotic arm
• modular
• multi-segment reconfigurability
• workspace scalability
• compliance-stiffness trade-off

Innovation

• modular soft robotics
• cable-driven actuation
• multi-segment reconfigurability
• tendon-routing channels
• stiffness tuning