Engineering Commons^™

Design And Control Of Modular Soft Robotic Actuators With Architected Structures, Nicholas Pagliocca

Theses and Dissertations

Soft robotic systems composed of highly compliant materials offer unparalleled advantages compared to rigid-body systems in applications such as fragile material handling and human-machine interactions. Often, their motions are prescribed by structural anisotropy and reinforcement materials to directionally limit motion. The continuum motion and non-linear material response intrinsic to soft robotics makes their design, modeling, and control a formidable challenge for engineers. Leveraging the deformation driven response of soft robotic actuators, highly versatile compliant architected structures whose local deformations dictate global material response can be integrated into soft robotic actuators for tunable mechanical responses. In this thesis, flexible center-symmetric perforated …