Design, Fabrication, and Data-Driven Locomotion Control of Modular Reconfigurable Soft Robots

As the field of robotics rapidly grows and evolves, significant challenges for the implementation of mobile robots include high costs and an inability to reach the level of adaptabilityand efficiency seen in animals. Newer subfields like soft robotics and modular reconfigurablerobots hold exciting potential to address both challenges. When combined, the qualities ofmodular reconfigurable soft robots (MRSoRos), such as low fabrication costs, fault tolerance,mechanical intelligence, resilience to damages, and decentralized control, offer complex andversatile behavior even with simple design and control. However, the nonlinear behaviorof soft materials complicates modeling and makes repeatability and precision difficult toachieve.This dissertation presents and implements the design, fabrication, and control of spherically reconfigurable MRSoRos. These motor-tendon actuated multi-limb robots are capableof individual crawling locomotion. The individual modules can then be reconfigured intospheres and millipede-like chains for multimodal crawling and rolling locomotion. The designfor both homogeneous and heterogeneous modules with varying numbers of robot modulesis explored and experimentally validated.The lack of direct biological analogues for the robots as well as difficulty in modeling thegeometry and actuation necessitate a data-driven method to achieve tractable locomotioncontrol. A learning-based gait synthesis strategy is presented and experimentally shownto improve gait speed and uncoupling of rotation and translation behavior. Finally, thesedesign and control methods are combined and adapted for the implementation of a noveltwo-module spherically reconfigurable MRSoRo Softball-Bot, which is capable of multimodallocomotion in different configurations.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Alabama Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Freeman, Caitlin

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Vikas, Vishesh

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shepard, William S
• Yoon, Hwan-Sik
• Patiballa, Sree K.
• Mulani, Sameer
• Trimmer, Barry

• Control
• Locomotion
• Modular reconfigurable robots
• Soft robotics

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Dc Identifier Other

1090132

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ir.ua.edu:123456789/14482