Human Robot Interaction Laboratory

Soft Actuators

The current research in our lab is focused on developing artificial muscle which mimic natural muscle. We use various soft actuators including shape memory allow, electroactive polymer actuator, and pneumatic actuator. Currently, we developed an artificial muscle which can generate high force (>3kgf) at high operating frequency (2Hz)

We developed polymer based soft actuator that can produce more than 50-fold higher blocking force than conventional dielectric liquid-coupled electrostatic actuators at 2kV. The bellow figure shows four of these actuators lift 1.25kg weight.

Soft Sensors

Soft sensors have been reported in various methods such as metal strain gauges with polymer substrates and resistive, capacitive, or piezoelectric tactile sensor. Stretchable, skin mountable and wearable strain sensors are required in various potential applications. Our research target is developing a various soft sensors which can measure pressure, force, strain or geometry.

By using soft sensor, the 3-DOF configuration of the soft manipulator can be detected in real time. This technology can be applied into various robotics field, such as soft robots, surgery robot, and teleopration robot.

Soft Rehabilitation Robot

Applying soft robotic technologies for wearable robots is a great approach for a compact, lightweight, user-friendly and portable exoskeleton since the soft actuators and sensors are lightweight, compact and have high DOFs. We have interests in the use of SMA actuator for a soft wearable robot since it produces high force and displacement with thin, flexible and lightweight features. The SMA-based wearable robot, named Soft Wrist Assist (SWA), assists 2 DOFs wrist motions, only weighting 151g of the wearable part.

Soft Sensor for Surgical Robot

To achieve minimally invasive surgery (MIS), flexible surgical instruments was developed. However, to access the target anatomy, precision control of the flexible endoscopic robot using sensor feedback is needed. We are aim to develop 3DoF(Degree-of-Freedom) force sensor and displacement sensor for endoscopic robot. (This work is collaborated with TCL laboratory in KAIST)

Soft Gripper

Soft grippers are more compliant, having simpler structure than rigid grippers and can grab unknown objects by a simple control algorithm. We have interests in the use of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) for soft gripper. DEAs have advantages in large strain, fast response, lightweight and self-sensing capability. To enhance the grasping force, electroadhesion pad was combined with soft gripper. The gripper can lift and move various shaped objects 100 times heavier than the gripper's mass.

Wearable Soft Haptic Actuators

Electro-active polymer (EAP) actuators, particularly dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), is a flexible soft actuator as a tactile element for wearable interface. With the developed wearable interfaces using DEAs, we can provide programmable tactile stimuli on skin.

Haptic for Consumer Electronics

Not only for wearable devices, EAP actuators are also suitable for curved surfaces, such as car handles and other consumer electronics. Therefore, with EAP actuators, haptic touch panels can be implemented on consumer electronics. Our target is to make a consumer electronics with highly transparent panel.