Development of Novel Three-Dimensional Soft Parallel Robot

Soft robotics is an emerging area of research with great potential to revolutionize the safe interaction of humans and robots. Typically, soft robots are made of serial elastomeric arms. However, the application of a parallel structure in the design of a soft robot would be of great interest since it can provide more control on the overall stiffness and the payload of the robot. This paper reports on the design and manufacturing of a novel three-dimensional (3D) soft parallel robot. The robot consists of three closed kinematic chains that connect the moving platform to the fixed base and provide 3 DOF in x, y, and z directions. Each single pieced designed kinematic chain integrates active soft links along with passive links incorporating flexure hinges to create relative motion. The robot prototype is 3D printed using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and actuated with three tendon driven soft actuators. The kinematic model of the robot is derived and simulated in different trajectories in Matlab Simulink. The Matlab Simscape model is created to obtain the dynamical response of the mechanism for various inputs. Both the kinematic model and dynamical model are validated through the experimental setup. The proposed soft robot is lightweight and efficient and can be used safely in close contact with humans in different industries such as the packaging and medical industry.