{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/120439"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/120439","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Design space enumerations for pneumatically actuated soft continuum manipulators","abstract":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-05-01","abstract_html":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-05-01","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ripperger, Evan"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Mechanical Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Krishnan, Girish"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-05","date_published":"2023-05","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:57Z","subjects":["Robotics","Frees","Soft Robotics","Sca","Scm"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2023 Evan Ripperger"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120439","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Krishnan, Girish"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ripperger, Evan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2023-05","2023-05-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Mechanical Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Robotics","Frees","Soft Robotics","Sca","Scm"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2023 Evan Ripperger"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120439"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-05-01","The student, Evan Ripperger, accepted the attached license on 2023-04-28 at 13:18.","The student, Evan Ripperger, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2023-04-28 at 13:24.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2023-05-05 at 08:22.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19242 on 2023-09-01 at 17:15:20","Pneumatically actuated soft continuum manipulators (SCMs) are constructed by combining several extending or contracting fiber reinforced elastomeric enclosure (FREE) actuators in series, parallel and a combination thereof. While it is well known that architectures with serial combinations of FREEs yield large workspace and dexterity, they suffer from design and control complexity, increased number of valves and inertia. Recent advances in exploring the FREE design space show using parallel combinations of dissimilar FREEs (bending and rotating) improve workspace and dexterity. This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of SCM design architectures by enumerating possibilities of serial and parallel combinations of similar and dissimilar FREEs. A novel dexterity metric is proposed to enable objective comparison of different SCMs based on shape similarity and end-effector tangent. Given a fixed resource of control inputs (actuator and valve inputs), the paper systematically selects the best architecture of the SCM (serial, parallel, similar or dissimilar FREE) to maximizes dexterity and workspace. Optimal designs are heavily dependent on the context of the application, which may change how these manipulators are deployed. The paper presents two practical design applications that demonstrate the usefulness of the enumeration framework. While in general, serial design combinations using symmetric actuators result in larger workspace and dexterity, some architectures with asymmetric combinations of FREEs may see similar levels of dexterity and workspace."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Design space enumerations for pneumatically actuated soft continuum manipulators"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Krishnan, Girish"],"dc:creator":["Ripperger, Evan"],"dc:date":["2023-05","2023-05-05"],"dc:description":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-05-01","The student, Evan Ripperger, accepted the attached license on 2023-04-28 at 13:18.","The student, Evan Ripperger, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2023-04-28 at 13:24.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2023-05-05 at 08:22.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19242 on 2023-09-01 at 17:15:20","Pneumatically actuated soft continuum manipulators (SCMs) are constructed by combining several extending or contracting fiber reinforced elastomeric enclosure (FREE) actuators in series, parallel and a combination thereof. While it is well known that architectures with serial combinations of FREEs yield large workspace and dexterity, they suffer from design and control complexity, increased number of valves and inertia. Recent advances in exploring the FREE design space show using parallel combinations of dissimilar FREEs (bending and rotating) improve workspace and dexterity. This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of SCM design architectures by enumerating possibilities of serial and parallel combinations of similar and dissimilar FREEs. A novel dexterity metric is proposed to enable objective comparison of different SCMs based on shape similarity and end-effector tangent. Given a fixed resource of control inputs (actuator and valve inputs), the paper systematically selects the best architecture of the SCM (serial, parallel, similar or dissimilar FREE) to maximizes dexterity and workspace. Optimal designs are heavily dependent on the context of the application, which may change how these manipulators are deployed. The paper presents two practical design applications that demonstrate the usefulness of the enumeration framework. While in general, serial design combinations using symmetric actuators result in larger workspace and dexterity, some architectures with asymmetric combinations of FREEs may see similar levels of dexterity and workspace."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120439"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2023 Evan Ripperger"],"dc:subject":["Robotics","Frees","Soft Robotics","Sca","Scm"],"dc:title":["Design space enumerations for pneumatically actuated soft continuum manipulators"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Mechanical Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:57Z"}