Introduction to Advanced Soft Robotics is an introductory textbook on soft body robotics. The content is designed to enable readers to better understand soft body robotics. Starting with an introduction to the subject, contents explain fundamental concepts such as perception and sensing, fabrication techniques and material design. These introductory chapters demonstrate the design concept and related design structures of soft robots from multiple perspectives, which can provide considerable design references for robotics learners and enthusiasts. Next, the book explains modeling and control for soft robotics and the applications. Key features of this book include easy-to-understand language and format, simple illustrations and a balanced overview of the subject (including a section on challenges and future prospects for soft robotics), and scientific references.
Soft Robotics in Rehabilitation explores the specific branch of robotics dealing with developing robots from compliant and flexible materials. Unlike robots built from rigid materials, soft robots behave the way in which living organs move and adapt to their surroundings and allow for increased flexibility and adaptability for the user. This book is a comprehensive reference discussing the application of soft robotics for rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities separated by various limbs. The book examines various techniques applied in soft robotics, including the development of soft actuators, rigid actuators with soft behavior, intrinsically soft actuators, and soft sensors. This book is perfect for graduate students, researchers, and professional engineers in robotics, control, mechanical, and electrical engineering who are interested in soft robotics, artificial intelligence, rehabilitation therapy, and medical and rehabilitation device design and manufacturing. - Outlines the application of soft robotic techniques to design platforms that provide rehabilitation therapy for disabled persons to help improve their motor functions - Discusses the application of soft robotics for rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities separated by various limbs - Offers readers the ability to find soft robotics devices, methods, and results for any limb, and then compare the results with other options provided in the book
Offers a comprehensive review of the research and development of mechanically responsive materials and their applications in soft robots Mechanically Responsive Materials for Soft Robotics offers an authoritative guide to the current state of mechanically responsive materials for the development of soft robotics. With contributions from an international panel of experts, the book examines existing mechanically responsive materials such as crystals, polymers, gels, and composites that are stimulated by light and heat. The book also explores the application of mechanical materials to soft robotics. The authors describe the many excellent mechanical crystals developed in recent years that show the ability to bend, twist, rotate, jump, self-heal, and shape memory. Mechanical polymer materials are described for evolution into artificial muscles, photomobile materials, bioinspired soft actuators, inorganic-organic hybrid materials, multi-responsive composite materials, and strain sensor materials. The application of mechanical materials to soft robots is just the beginning. This book reviews the many challenging and versatile applications, such as soft microrobots made from photoresponsive elastomers, four-dimensional printing for assembling soft robots, self-growing of soft robots like plants, and biohybrid robots using muscle tissue. This important book: -Explores recent developments in the use of soft smart materials in robotic systems -Covers the full scope of mechanically responsive materials: polymers, crystals, gels, and nanocomposites -Deals with an interdisciplinary topic of advanced smart materials research -Contains extensive descriptions of current and future applications in soft robotics Written for materials scientists, polymer chemists, photochemists, physical chemists, solid state chemists, inorganic chemists, and robotics engineers, Mechanically Responsive Materials for Soft Robotics offers a comprehensive and timely review of the most recent research on mechanically responsive materials and the manufacture of soft robotics.
This book introduces various advanced, smart materials and the strategies for the design and preparation for novel uses from macro to micro or from biological, inorganic, organic to composite materials. Selecting the best material is a challenging task, requiring tradeoffs between material properties and designing functional smart materials. The de
Untethered Miniature Soft Robots Reference on achieving contactless manipulation of soft robots, detailing high level concepts and perspectives and technical skills of soft robots Untethered Miniature Soft Robots: Materials, Fabrications, and Applications introduces the emerging field of miniature soft robots and summarizes the recent rapid development in the field to date, describing different types of functional materials to build miniature soft robots, such as silicone elastomer, carbon-based materials, hydrogels, liquid crystal polymer, flexible ferrofluid, and liquid metal, and covering the material properties, fabrication strategies, and functionalities in soft robots together with their underlying mechanisms. The book discusses magnetically, thermally, optically, and chemically actuated soft robots in depth, explores the many specific applications of miniature soft robots in biomedical, environmental, and electrical fields and summarizes the development of miniature soft robots based on soft matter, fabrication strategies, locomotion principles, sensing and actuation mechanisms. In closing, the text summarizes the opportunities and challenges faced by miniature soft robots, providing expert insight into the possible futures of this field. Written by four highly qualified academics, Untethered Miniature Soft Robots covers sample topics such as: Soft elastomer-based robots with programmable magnetization profiles and untethered soft robots based on template-aiding Working mechanisms of carbon-based materials, covering light-induced expansion and shrinkage, and humidity-induced deformation Designing microscale building blocks, modular assembly of building blocks based on Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) matrix, and inverse and forward design of modular morphing systems Material designs of magnetic liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) systems, multiple-stimuli responsiveness of magnetic LCE systems, and adaptive locomotion of magnetic LCE-based robots Controllable deformation and motion behaviors, as well as applications of ferrofluids droplet robots (FDRs), including cargo capturing, object sorting, liquid pumping/mixing, and liquid skin. Providing highly detailed and up-to-date coverage of the topic, Untethered Miniature Soft Robots serves as an invaluable and highly comprehensive reference for researchers working in this promising field across a variety of disciplines, including materials scientists, mechanical and electronics engineers, polymer chemists, and biochemists.
Robot-assisted healthcare offers benefits for repetitive, intensive and task specific training compared to traditional manual manipulation performed by physiotherapists. However, a majority of existing rehabilitation devices use rigid actuators such as electric motors or hydraulic cylinders which cannot guarantee the safety of patients. This book provides biomedical engineering and robotics professionals and students with the fundamental mechatronic engineering knowledge to analyze and design new soft robotic devices. The authors present a systematic investigation of the design, modelling, methods, and control methods, implementation and novel applications of mechatronics to provide better clinical rehabilitation services and new insights into emerging technologies utilized in soft robots for healthcare.
Introduction to Advanced Soft Robotics is an introductory textbook on soft body robotics. The content is designed to enable readers to better understand soft body robotics. Starting with an introduction to the subject, contents explain fundamental concepts such as perception and sensing, fabrication techniques and material design. These introductory chapters demonstrate the design concept and related design structures of soft robots from multiple perspectives, which can provide considerable design references for robotics learners and enthusiasts. Next, the book explains modeling and control for soft robotics and the applications. Key features of this book include easy-to-understand language and format, simple illustrations and a balanced overview of the subject (including a section on challenges and future prospects for soft robotics), and scientific references.
The book presents the latest advances in soft electronics in biomedical engineering and its potential applications in various biomedical fields. The contributors provide comprehensive coverage of how soft electronics are used in diagnostics and monitoring, medical therapy, neural engineering, and wearable and implantable systems. In particular, some emerging research areas such as advanced soft robotics, fiber sensing technologies, and power optimization strategies are explored. In addition, the book highlights international standardization activities in wearable technologies and implantable bioelectronics. The book will benefit researchers, engineers, and advanced students in biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and materials science.
This book discusses the developments in the advanced control and intelligent automation for complex systems completed over the last two decades, including the progress in advanced control theory and method, intelligent control and decision-making of complex metallurgical processes, intelligent systems and machine learning, intelligent robot systems design and control, and prediction and control technology for renewable energy. With the depth and breadth of coverage of this book, it serves as a useful reference for engineers in the field of automation and complex process control and graduate students interested in advanced control theory and computational intelligence as well as their applications to the complex industrial processes. This book offers an up-to-date overview of this active research area. It provides readers with the state-of-the-art methods for advanced control and intelligent automation for complex systems
