New valve adds resilience to soft robots

Developed by Dr Marco Pontin and Dr Dana Damian from the University’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the new valve automatically isolates damaged parts of a robot from the rest of the system, which prevents damage from spreading and allows the robot to function. Their findings are reported in Science Robotics.

Soft robots are made from flexible materials and are well-suited for tasks that would be difficult or dangerous for traditional robots, such as working in delicate environments or interacting with humans. Their flexibility also makes them more susceptible to damage.

The valve works by using air pressure to control the flow of fluids through the robot and can be used in two modes, namely forward and reverse operation.

In forward operation mode the valve can isolate a punctured section of the robot in as little as 21 milliseconds. This prevents the leak from causing further damage and allows the robot to continue operating.

In reverse operation mode the valve can protect the robot from over pressurisation, which can cause the robot to burst.

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According to the University, the valve can also be used in a combined mode that allows the robot to adjust its own internal pressure and autonomously set itself up to isolate a burst.

In a statement, Dr Dana Damian, senior lecturer at Sheffield University, said: “Soft robots carry the promise of being able to operate and work in the proximity of humans or inside humans as medical tools, and their resilience to faults is a primary feature of their adoption.

“The resilience mechanism we have come up with is suitable not only to extend these robots’ operation lifetime but also to reduce their size, complexity, and cost because fault isolation or prevention is triggered passively in our valve by the fault itself. The intelligence of these soft robots is embedded in their body structure, which is what we call embodied intelligence.”