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A Mechatronics-Embedded Pneumatic Soft Modular Robot Powered via Single Air Tube

Soft modular robots have advantages, including infinite degrees of freedom and various configurations. Most soft robots are actuated by inflating air pressure into their chambers. However, each chamber is connected to a tube that provides the air supply, which incurs drag and intertwining problems that influence the robot’s motion. Moreover, the number of chambers directly affects the deformations and motion capabilities of the robot. Therefore, the crucial issue is the structure of a soft modular robot that can share an air source without reducing the number of chambers and can guarantee the deformations of the robot. In this paper, a novel mechatronics-embedded soft module was designed and manufactured, which has an air supply sharing function. Therefore, the soft modular robot can be powered via a single air tube. In addition, a wireless platform to control the air pressure of the module was built, and an experimental model was established to obtain the relationship between the deformation and pressure of the module. Four experiments were performed under different conditions. The experiments’ results indicate the bending capability of the module. Moreover, hooking object, twisting motion, and bionic gesture experiments demonstrate the validity of the module’s air pressure sharing function. Therefore, the air sharing supply approach proposed in this paper can be used as a reference to solve the tube drag problem of soft modular robots.