eViper: A Scalable Platform for Untethered Modular Soft Robots

Abstract

Soft robots present unique capabilities, but have been limited by the lack of scalable technologies for construction and the complexity of algorithms for efficient control and motion. These depend on soft-body dynamics, high-dimensional actuation patterns, and external/onboard forces. This paper presents scalable methods and platforms to study the impact of weight distribution and actuation patterns on fully untethered modular soft robots. An extendable Vibrating Intelligent Piezo-Electric Robot (eViper), together with an open-source Simulation Framework for Electroactive Robotic Sheet (SFERS) implemented in PyBullet, was developed as a platform to analyze the complex weight-locomotion interaction. By integrating power electronics, sensors, actuators, and batteries onboard, the eViper platform enables rapid design iteration and evaluation of different weight distribution and control strategies for the actuator arrays. The design supports both physics-based modeling and data-driven modeling via onboard automatic data-acquisition capabilities. We show that SFERS can provide useful guidelines for optimizing the weight distribution and actuation patterns of the eViper, thereby achieving maximum speed or minimum cost of transport (COT).