Soft Robotic Nurse Arm Test-Cases: A Comparative Analysis of Laminar and Granular Jammed Skeletons

Soft robotics has emerged as a rapidly growing field, offering remarkable adaptability and dexterity in various applications such as medical devices, structural engineering, automotive systems, and aerospace industries. However, the precise control over soft structures has been a longstanding challenge, necessitating the development of variable stiffness mechanisms. This research explores novel designs that integrate granular jamming and laminar jamming structures to achieve variable stiffness in robots. The main objective is to contribute to the expanding knowledge in soft robotics and propose a methodology for analyzing soft robot prototypes. Specifically, the purpose of the research is to pave the way for the creation of versatile soft machines that can emulate the capabilities of traditional rigid robots. As a practical application, we present a test-case prototype for the arm of a soft robotic nurse for assisting patients, highlighting the potential of these innovative designs. The research covers the manual control for conducting the experiments and provides an experimental comparative analysis for 2 different skeleton designs.