The driving mechanism and control approach research of soft robot based on gas-driven

This paper described the structure of a flexible six-unit pneumatic robotic system which can move in the narrow and non-structured environment and also can pass through the hole that smaller than itself, which can´t be realized by wheeled, legged, crawler robot. It makes sea cucumber-like movement, echinoderm animal, drived by a pneumatic rubber accuator and provides metabolic driven force by robot structure changing mathematical model of pneumatic accuator is established. Analysing Mechanical properties, a mechanism is improved to realize the metabolic driven function. The high speed switch electromagnetic valve control system was designed for the robot movement. The robot moving experiment had been done based on the robot moving states and pulse voltage time orders in one moving cycle. The Pulse Width Modulation circuit is employed to control a nonlinear system with infrared remote control. Results prove the robot can move orderly in an ideal environment by the control of high speed switch electromagnetic valves.