Artificial soft robotic elephant trunk made with ionic polymer-metal nanocomposites (IPMCs)

Abstract

A novel design of an artificial soft robot similar to motions of an elephant trunk is presented. The proposed soft undulating robot is a combination of several sections. Each section is an assembly of cylindrical/tubular helical IPMC soft robotic manipulators. The IPMC elements are made of bending IPMC cylindrical/tubular helical elements distributed symmetrically around a cylindrical mantle. This paper further introduces some models and special cases the proposed IPMC soft actuators and sensors in cylindrical/tubular helical form. Experimental results relating the bending deformation to the axial deformations of slit cylinders are also presented.