Date & Venue:
Tuesday, 29 October 2019
EF122
Abstract:
This article describes the design and fabrication of fiber-reinforced soft actuators for a worm-like robot designed to operate inside constrained tubes. The actuators include bending, extension and torsion. These actuators are experimentally characterised by measuring the deflection versus applied pressure. The results demonstrate that fiber wrapping pattern, geometry of cross-section and elastomer selection are the main determinants of performance. The actuators under consideration are employed to construct a soft worm-like robot capable of ascending a pipe. This class of applications includes steerable catheters, endoscopes and pipe inspection devices.
Speaker Biography:
Matheus S. Xavier graduated from the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), Brazil with a Bachelor of Engineering (Control and Automation) in 2017 and a Bachelor of Science and Technology in 2016. He was also an exchange student (Mechatronics Engineering) in The University of Melbourne, Australia in 2014-2015. He is currently a PhD student within the Precision Mechatronics Lab, located in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computing. His research areas include soft robotics, steerable catheters and nonlinear control.