Soft and Steady Wins the Race

Abstract

The importance of natural environments with rugged deformable terrain from biodiversity, carbon capture, and coastal protection to economic livelihood is significant. However, the current systems available for robots to explore those ecosystems are either large, expensive and intrusive, not application focused or consist of many mechanical parts prone to failure. This study proposes a soft adaptable wheel designed and verified using a novel modelling-based approach suited for such ecosystems. The novel modelling techniques used a 3 part iterative design framework including a kinematic analysis using multi-body dynamics, structural feasibility tests using the finite element method and deformable terrain testing using the discrete element method. The final design operates as a soft fluidic actuator constructed with silicone, able to change its form depending on the task at hand. The proposed model is intended to be a more application-driven design (for rugged deformable terrain), that can more easily be integrated into robotic systems using off-the-shelf components. The simplicity and symmetry of the model can be easily scaled according to the terrain type, load requirements or application of the robotic system, ultimately reducing the time required to be used in environmental applications.