Compliant-Mechanisms-and-Soft-Robots-Virtual-Lab

Compliant Mechanisms and Soft Robots

Compliant mechanisms and soft robots have received great attention due to their superior inherent properties in bending under the action of external forces mimicking motions found in nature. Compliant mechanisms or flexible machines can be considered as the base of soft robotics, or alternatively, soft robotics can be seen as an application area of high mobility flexible mechanisms. Soft robotics is an emerging field that deals with the design, modeling, and fabrication of robotic systems made of soft and compliant materials mimicking the motion in nature. Soft robotics is an interdisciplinary field of research that includes different engineering disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, and materials engineering.

Description

We present a user-friendly and open-access MATLAB Toolbox for the design and motion analysis of compliant mechanisms and soft robots.

The developed toolbox serves as a platform to:

• Visualize the deformation of compliant joints and compliant beams (Module 1),
• Visualize the displacement of various compliant mechanisms (Module 2),
• Design simple and complex compliant mechanisms using the hinges and beams (Modules 1 & 2),
• Design and motion analysis of soft robots (Module 3)

Requirements

• Since the virtual lab is developed in MATLAB R2021b, user needs to download the entire package either in R2021b and newer versions of MATLAB.
• Good news: No pripor knowledge of MATLAB SImscape is required for running simulations on the presented submodules. User needs to enter the inputs using the mask. Data will be exported for further analysis.
• User needs beginner level MATLAB SImscape knowledge to design a new compliant mechanism or soft robots using the submodules.

Additional Resources

Please download our publications on the modeling of compliant mechanisms and soft robots using Simscape:

1. Modeling of Compliant Mechanisms in MATLAB Simscape
2. Modeling and Validation of Compliant Mechanisms and Soft Robots in MATLAB Simscape
3. Our recent paper more related to the developed virtual lab will be publicli available soon.

Introductory videos will be available soon in our YouTube Project Website.