A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation

Soft actuators (SAs) have been used in many compliant robotic structure and wearable devices, due to their safe interaction with the wearers. Despite advances, the capability of current SAs is limited by scalability, high hysteresis, and slow responses. In this paper, a new class of soft, scalable,...

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Autores principales:	Trung Thien Hoang, Luke Sy, Mattia Bussu, Mai Thanh Thai, Harrison Low, Phuoc Thien Phan, James Davies, Chi Cong Nguyen, Nigel H. Lovell, Thanh Nho Do
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	soft robotics wearable devices upper limb augmentation soft sensors soft actuators hysteresis modelling Chemical technology TP1-1185
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/99f24c37dd3843ee93dd5befafc91392
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:99f24c37dd3843ee93dd5befafc91392
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:99f24c37dd3843ee93dd5befafc913922021-11-25T18:58:09ZA Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation10.3390/s212276381424-8220https://doaj.org/article/99f24c37dd3843ee93dd5befafc913922021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/22/7638https://doaj.org/toc/1424-8220Soft actuators (SAs) have been used in many compliant robotic structure and wearable devices, due to their safe interaction with the wearers. Despite advances, the capability of current SAs is limited by scalability, high hysteresis, and slow responses. In this paper, a new class of soft, scalable, and high-aspect ratio fiber-reinforced hydraulic SAs is introduced. The new SA uses a simple fabrication process of insertion where a hollow elastic rubber tube is directly inserted into a constrained hollow coil, eliminating the need for the manual wrapping of an inextensible fiber around a long elastic structure. To provide high adaptation to the user skin for wearable applications, the new SAs are integrated into flexible fabrics to form a wearable fabric sleeve. To monitor the SA elongation, a soft liquid metal-based fabric piezoresistive sensor is also developed. To capture the nonlinear hysteresis of the SA, a novel asymmetric hysteresis model which only requires five model parameters in its structure is developed and experimentally validated. The new SAs-driven wearable robotic sleeve is scalable, highly flexible, and lightweight. It can also produce a large amount of force of around 23 N per muscle at around 30% elongation, to provide useful assistance to the human upper limbs. Experimental results show that the soft fabric sleeve can augment a user’s performance when working against a load, evidenced by a significant reduction on the muscular effort, as monitored by electromyogram (EMG) signals. The performance of the developed SAs, soft fabric sleeve, soft liquid metal fabric sensor, and nonlinear hysteresis model reveal that they can effectively modulate the level of assistance for the wearer. The new technologies obtained from this work can be potentially implemented in emerging assistive applications, such as rehabilitation, defense, and industry.Trung Thien HoangLuke SyMattia BussuMai Thanh ThaiHarrison LowPhuoc Thien PhanJames DaviesChi Cong NguyenNigel H. LovellThanh Nho DoMDPI AGarticlesoft roboticswearable devicesupper limb augmentationsoft sensorssoft actuatorshysteresis modellingChemical technologyTP1-1185ENSensors, Vol 21, Iss 7638, p 7638 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	soft robotics wearable devices upper limb augmentation soft sensors soft actuators hysteresis modelling Chemical technology TP1-1185
spellingShingle	soft robotics wearable devices upper limb augmentation soft sensors soft actuators hysteresis modelling Chemical technology TP1-1185 Trung Thien Hoang Luke Sy Mattia Bussu Mai Thanh Thai Harrison Low Phuoc Thien Phan James Davies Chi Cong Nguyen Nigel H. Lovell Thanh Nho Do A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
description	Soft actuators (SAs) have been used in many compliant robotic structure and wearable devices, due to their safe interaction with the wearers. Despite advances, the capability of current SAs is limited by scalability, high hysteresis, and slow responses. In this paper, a new class of soft, scalable, and high-aspect ratio fiber-reinforced hydraulic SAs is introduced. The new SA uses a simple fabrication process of insertion where a hollow elastic rubber tube is directly inserted into a constrained hollow coil, eliminating the need for the manual wrapping of an inextensible fiber around a long elastic structure. To provide high adaptation to the user skin for wearable applications, the new SAs are integrated into flexible fabrics to form a wearable fabric sleeve. To monitor the SA elongation, a soft liquid metal-based fabric piezoresistive sensor is also developed. To capture the nonlinear hysteresis of the SA, a novel asymmetric hysteresis model which only requires five model parameters in its structure is developed and experimentally validated. The new SAs-driven wearable robotic sleeve is scalable, highly flexible, and lightweight. It can also produce a large amount of force of around 23 N per muscle at around 30% elongation, to provide useful assistance to the human upper limbs. Experimental results show that the soft fabric sleeve can augment a user’s performance when working against a load, evidenced by a significant reduction on the muscular effort, as monitored by electromyogram (EMG) signals. The performance of the developed SAs, soft fabric sleeve, soft liquid metal fabric sensor, and nonlinear hysteresis model reveal that they can effectively modulate the level of assistance for the wearer. The new technologies obtained from this work can be potentially implemented in emerging assistive applications, such as rehabilitation, defense, and industry.
format	article
author	Trung Thien Hoang Luke Sy Mattia Bussu Mai Thanh Thai Harrison Low Phuoc Thien Phan James Davies Chi Cong Nguyen Nigel H. Lovell Thanh Nho Do
author_facet	Trung Thien Hoang Luke Sy Mattia Bussu Mai Thanh Thai Harrison Low Phuoc Thien Phan James Davies Chi Cong Nguyen Nigel H. Lovell Thanh Nho Do
author_sort	Trung Thien Hoang
title	A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
title_short	A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
title_full	A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
title_fullStr	A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
title_full_unstemmed	A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
title_sort	wearable soft fabric sleeve for upper limb augmentation
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/99f24c37dd3843ee93dd5befafc91392
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A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation

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