Bioinspired Sensing Actuation And Control In Underwater Soft Robotic Systems

This book includes representative research from the state‐of‐the‐art in the emerging field of soft robotics, with a special focus on bioinspired soft robotics for underwater applications. Topics include novel materials, sensors, actuators, and system design for distributed estimation and control of soft robotic appendages inspired by the octopus and seastar. It summarizes the latest findings in an emerging field of bioinspired soft robotics for the underwater domain, primarily drawing from (but not limited to) an ongoing research program in bioinspired autonomous systems sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. The program has stimulated cross‐disciplinary research in biology, material science, computational mechanics, and systems and control for the purpose of creating novel robotic appendages for maritime applications. The book collects recent results in this area.

This book includes original, peer-reviewed research papers from the ICAUS 2022, which offers a unique and interesting platform for scientists, engineers and practitioners throughout the world to present and share their most recent research and innovative ideas. The aim of the ICAUS 2022 is to stimulate researchers active in the areas pertinent to intelligent unmanned systems. The topics covered include but are not limited to Unmanned Aerial/Ground/Surface/Underwater Systems, Robotic, Autonomous Control/Navigation and Positioning/ Architecture, Energy and Task Planning and Effectiveness Evaluation Technologies, Artificial Intelligence Algorithm/Bionic Technology and Its Application in Unmanned Systems. The papers showcased here share the latest findings on Unmanned Systems, Robotics, Automation, Intelligent Systems, Control Systems, Integrated Networks, Modeling and Simulation. It makes the book a valuable asset for researchers, engineers, and university students alike.

Electroactive polymers are smart materials that can undergo size or shape structural deformations in the presence of an electrical field. These lightweight polymeric materials possess properties such as flexibility, cost-effectiveness, rapid response time, easy controllability (especially physical to electrical), and low power consumption. Electroactive Polymeric Materials examines the history, progress, synthesis, and characterization of electroactive polymers and then details their application and potential in fields including biomedical science, environmental remediation, renewable energy, robotics, sensors and textiles. Highlighting the flexibility, lightweight, cost-effective, rapid response time, easy controllability, and low power consumption characteristics of electroactive polymers, respected authors in the field explore their use in sensors, actuators, MEMS, biomedical apparatus, energy storage, packaging, textiles, and corrosion protection to provide readers with a powerhouse of a reference to use for their own endeavors. Features: Explores the most recent advances in all categories of ionic/electroactive polymer composite materials Includes basic science, addresses novel topics, and covers multifunctional applications in one resource Suitable for newcomers, academicians, scientists and R&D industrial experts working in polymer technologies .

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems, Living Machines 2022, in Genoa, Italy, held in July 19–22, 2022. The 44 full papers and 14 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 67 submissions. They deal with research on novel life-like technologies inspired by the scientific investigation of biological systems, biomimetics, and research that seeks to interface biological and artificial systems to create biohybrid systems. The conference aims to highlight the most exciting research in both fields united by the theme of “Living Machines.”

This book provides a comprehensive coverage on robot fish including design, modeling and optimization, control, autonomous control and applications. It gathers contributions by the leading researchers in the area. Readers will find the book very useful for designing and building robot fish, not only in theory but also in practice. Moreover, the book discusses various important issues for future research and development, including design methodology, control methodology, and autonomous control strategy. This book is intended for researchers and graduate students in the fields of robotics, ocean engineering and related areas.

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.

Robotic engineering inspired by biology—biomimetics—has many potential applications: robot snakes can be used for rescue operations in disasters, snake-like endoscopes can be used in medical diagnosis, and artificial muscles can replace damaged muscles to recover the motor functions of human limbs. Conversely, the application of robotics technology to our understanding of biological systems and behaviors—biorobotic modeling and analysis—provides unique research opportunities: robotic manipulation technology with optical tweezers can be used to study the cell mechanics of human red blood cells, a surface electromyography sensing system can help us identify the relation between muscle forces and hand movements, and mathematical models of brain circuitry may help us understand how the cerebellum achieves movement control. Biologically Inspired Robotics contains cutting-edge material—considerably expanded and with additional analysis—from the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO). These 16 chapters cover both biomimetics and biorobotic modeling/analysis, taking readers through an exploration of biologically inspired robot design and control, micro/nano bio-robotic systems, biological measurement and actuation, and applications of robotics technology to biological problems. Contributors examine a wide range of topics, including: A method for controlling the motion of a robotic snake The design of a bionic fitness cycle inspired by the jaguar The use of autonomous robotic fish to detect pollution A noninvasive brain-activity scanning method using a hybrid sensor A rehabilitation system for recovering motor function in human hands after injury Human-like robotic eye and head movements in human–machine interactions A state-of-the-art resource for graduate students and researchers.

This book discusses biologically inspired robotic actuators designed to offer improved robot performance and approaching human-like efficiency and versatility. It assesses biological actuation and control in the human motor system, presents a range of technical actuation approaches, and discusses potential applications in wearable robots, i.e., powered prostheses and exoskeletons. Gathering the findings of internationally respected researchers from various fields, the book provides a uniquely broad perspective on bioinspired actuator designs for robotics. Its scope includes fundamental aspects of biomechanics and neuromechanics, actuator and control design, and their application in (wearable) robotics. The book offers PhD students and advanced graduate students an essential introduction to the field, while providing researchers a cutting-edge research perspective.