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Actuators
Special Issues
Smart and Soft Self-Sensing Actuators
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Smart and Soft Self-Sensing Actuators

A special issue of Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825). This special issue belongs to the section "Actuators for Robotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 14023

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Min Pan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Interests: fluid power; digital hydraulics; motion control; soft actuators; soft robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Soft robots and devices exploit deformable materials that are capable of changes in shape to allow conformable physical contact for controlled manipulation. The creation of self-sensing actuation systems and robots is the focus of increasing interest, driven by a desire to create smart, controllable, and robust soft actuators and robots for application in a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, defense, nuclear, exploration, space, and more. The design, modeling, and control of soft self-sensing actuators are ongoing areas of research.

In this context, I am delighted to announce a new Special Issue on “Smart and Soft Self-Sensing Actuators”, which will address significant developments and emerging evolution in the design and control of soft self-sensing actuators and their application. This Special Issue will collect a coherent ensemble of original and inspiring articles, communications, and reviews emphasizing the following topics:

  • New materials for soft self-sensing actuators;
  • Design and fabrication of self-sensing actuators;
  • Control of soft robotic systems;
  • Self-sensing artificial muscles;
  • Demonstrators and applications.

Dr. Min Pan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soft self-sensing actuators
  • soft robots
  • soft actuators
  • controllable robots
  • modeling
  • electronic skins
  • self-sensing wearable devices
  • smart actuators

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 3055 KiB  
Communication
Sensuator: A Hybrid Sensor–Actuator Approach to Soft Robotic Proprioception Using Recurrent Neural Networks
by Pornthep Preechayasomboon and Eric Rombokas
Actuators 2021, 10(2), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/act10020030 - 7 Feb 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5621
Abstract
Soft robotic actuators are now being used in practical applications; however, they are often limited to open-loop control that relies on the inherent compliance of the actuator. Achieving human-like manipulation and grasping with soft robotic actuators requires at least some form of sensing, [...] Read more.
Soft robotic actuators are now being used in practical applications; however, they are often limited to open-loop control that relies on the inherent compliance of the actuator. Achieving human-like manipulation and grasping with soft robotic actuators requires at least some form of sensing, which often comes at the cost of complex fabrication and purposefully built sensor structures. In this paper, we utilize the actuating fluid itself as a sensing medium to achieve high-fidelity proprioception in a soft actuator. As our sensors are somewhat unstructured, their readings are difficult to interpret using linear models. We therefore present a proof of concept of a method for deriving the pose of the soft actuator using recurrent neural networks. We present the experimental setup and our learned state estimator to show that our method is viable for achieving proprioception and is also robust to common sensor failures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Soft Self-Sensing Actuators)
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14 pages, 8556 KiB  
Article
Soft Controllable Carbon Fibre-based Piezoresistive Self-Sensing Actuators
by Min Pan, Chenggang Yuan, Hastha Anpalagan, Andrew Plummer, Jun Zou, Junhui Zhang and Chris Bowen
Actuators 2020, 9(3), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/act9030079 - 30 Aug 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6940
Abstract
Soft robots and devices exploit deformable materials that are capable of changes in shape to allow conformable physical contact for controlled manipulation. While the use of embedded sensors in soft actuation systems is gaining increasing interest, there are limited examples where the body [...] Read more.
Soft robots and devices exploit deformable materials that are capable of changes in shape to allow conformable physical contact for controlled manipulation. While the use of embedded sensors in soft actuation systems is gaining increasing interest, there are limited examples where the body of the actuator or robot is able to act as the sensing element. In addition, the conventional feedforward control method is widely used for the design of a controller, resulting in imprecise position control from a sensory input. In this work, we fabricate a soft self-sensing finger actuator using flexible carbon fibre-based piezoresistive composites to achieve an inherent sensing functionality and design a dual-closed-loop control system for precise actuator position control. The resistance change of the actuator body was used to monitor deformation and fed back to the motion controller. The experimental and simulated results demonstrated the effectiveness, robustness and good controllability of the soft finger actuator. Our work explores the emerging influence of inherently piezoresistive soft actuators to address the challenges of self-sensing, actuation and control, which can benefit the design of next-generation soft robots. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Soft Self-Sensing Actuators)
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