Self-Shape Sensing Soft Pneumatic Grasper Based on Piecewise Liquid Metal Sensor and Piecewise Variational Curvature Model

Zitong Zhou

doi:10.54254/2753-8818/2025.19931

Research Article

Open access

Published on 15 January 2025

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Zhou,Z. (2025). Self-Shape Sensing Soft Pneumatic Grasper Based on Piecewise Liquid Metal Sensor and Piecewise Variational Curvature Model. Theoretical and Natural Science,83,51-69.

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Self-Shape Sensing Soft Pneumatic Grasper Based on Piecewise Liquid Metal Sensor and Piecewise Variational Curvature Model

Zitong Zhou *^,1,

¹ Culver Academies, Indiana, USA

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-8818/2025.19931

Abstract

The shape estimation function can help solve end positioning or gripping control of soft robots. However, there is a lack of sensing and modeling techniques for accurate deformation estimation and soft robots with axial elongation, e.g., pneumatic soft robotic graspers. This paper presents a self-shape sensing pneumatic soft grasper with integrated liquid metal composite piecewise curvature sensors. Ga-Ln-Sn alloy was used as the basis of the sensor with addition of NdFeB and Ni. Then, a piecewise variable curvature model was developed to predict the deformation of the robotic fingers. A three-fingers soft robotic grasper (working similarly as a two-finger grasper on the 2D working plane) was built to test the performances of the sensor and the model. The result indicated that the grasper is not only capable of self-shape sensing, but also contact detection and gripping object size estimation. By statistical analysis, it is proven valid that the data collected by the sensor is able to go through machine learning processes to achieve gripping object shape identification.

Keywords

pneumatic soft actuator, self-sensing, shape estimation, liquid-metal, piecewise strain sensor

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Cite this article

Zhou,Z. (2025). Self-Shape Sensing Soft Pneumatic Grasper Based on Piecewise Liquid Metal Sensor and Piecewise Variational Curvature Model. Theoretical and Natural Science,83,51-69.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computing Innovation and Applied Physics

Conference website: https://2025.confciap.org/

ISBN：978-1-83558-905-2(Print) / 978-1-83558-906-9(Online)

Conference date: 17 January 2025

Editor：Ömer Burak İSTANBULLU, Marwan Omar, Anil Fernando

Series: Theoretical and Natural Science

Volume number: Vol.83

ISSN：2753-8818(Print) / 2753-8826(Online)

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