UMArm: Untethered, Modular, Wearable, Soft Pneumatic Arm
🤖 AI Summary
To address key limitations of pneumatic soft robotic arms—including low degrees of freedom (DOFs), poor positioning accuracy, limited payload capacity, and reliance on external pneumatic sources—this work proposes a tetherless, modular, wearable hybrid rigid-soft pneumatic robotic arm. The method employs high force-to-weight-ratio McKibben actuators integrated with miniature embedded solenoid valves, mounted on a lightweight rigid spinal backbone to enable fully autonomous pressure regulation, directionally controllable stiffness, and high-DOF motion. Leveraging rigid–soft coupling, modular quick-release interfaces, and reconfigurable topological design, the system achieves ±0.8 mm repeatability in end-effector positioning, supports a 3.2 kg payload (with only 1.4 kg self-mass), and demonstrates wearable assistive operation and inchworm-like morphological reconfiguration.
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Robotic arms are essential to modern industries, however, their adaptability to unstructured environments remains limited. Soft robotic arms, particularly those actuated pneumatically, offer greater adaptability in unstructured environments and enhanced safety for human-robot interaction. However, current pneumatic soft arms are constrained by limited degrees of freedom, precision, payload capacity, and reliance on bulky external pressure regulators. In this work, a novel pneumatically driven rigid-soft hybrid arm, ``UMArm'', is presented. The shortcomings of pneumatically actuated soft arms are addressed by densely integrating high-force-to-weight-ratio, self-regulated McKibben actuators onto a lightweight rigid spine structure. The modified McKibben actuators incorporate valves and controllers directly inside, eliminating the need for individual pressure lines and external regulators, significantly reducing system weight and complexity. Full untethered operation, high payload capacity, precision, and directionally tunable compliance are achieved by the UMArm. Portability is demonstrated through a wearable assistive arm experiment, and versatility is showcased by reconfiguring the system into an inchworm robot. The results of this work show that the high-degree-of-freedom, external-regulator-free pneumatically driven arm systems like the UMArm possess great potential for real-world unstructured environments.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Limited adaptability of robotic arms in unstructured environments
Constraints in pneumatic soft arms: freedom, precision, payload
Reliance on bulky external pressure regulators in current designs
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Dense integration of self-regulated McKibben actuators
Valves and controllers embedded inside actuators
Lightweight rigid spine with hybrid structure
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