Speaker Bio

Shiwu Zhang is currently a professor in the Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He received the BS degree (1997) in mechanical and electrical engineering from USTC, and the PhD degree (2003) in precision instrumentation and precision machinery from USTC, Hefei, China. He is the named author of over 100 papers in different journals and conferences. His research focuses on smart materials and their applications in bio-inspired robots, soft robots, and terradynamics. His group has obtained top 10 annual research achievement award in annual conference of China robot industry, 2019，and obtained the championship in the first Advanced Technology & Engineering Challenge (A-TEC) robot championships.

张世武，现任中国科学技术大学精密机械与精密仪器系教授。1997年获得中国科技大学机电工程学士学位，2003年获得中国科技大学精密仪器与精密机械博士学位。在不同的期刊和会议上发表论文100余篇。主要研究智能材料及其在仿生机器人、软机器人和地形动力学中的应用。获得2019年中国机器人产业年会十佳年度研究成果奖，并获得首届先进技术与工程挑战赛(A-TEC)机器人锦标赛冠军。

Abstract

Attracted by the excellent performance of muscles in nature, there is ever-increasing interest in mimicking muscle movements such as locomotion, lifting, rotation as well as bending, and several categories of muscle-like actuators have been developed over the past several decades. In this talk, the attempts on the development of artificial muscle based on smart materials such as shape memory alloy (SMA) and liquid metal will be introduced. Owing to their high power-to-weight ratio, large strain, and considerable large output force, SMAs is an ideal artificial muscle for actuating soft robots, while the lack of control for the intermediate actuating states of the SMAs limits the controllability and capabilities of SMA-actuated soft robots. The precise motion control on the SMA-composite actuators has been achieved according to a model-based feedback controller considering the constraints of the strain of the SMA, temperature increment, and load increment of the actuator. Thus, a series of soft robots are developed, such as dexterous hand, soft gripper, and soft arm. Gallium-based eutectic alloys such as EGaIn and galinstan are room-temperature liquid metals bestowed with many excellent properties, and have been demonstrated to be an extraordinary material choice for a wide variety of applications.

由于肌肉在自然界中具有卓越的性能，人们对模仿肌肉如运动、提升、旋转和弯曲等越来越感兴趣，在过去的几十年里已经开发出了几类类肌肉的驱动器。该报告将介绍基于形状记忆合金(SMA)和液态金属等智能材料研制人工肌肉的一些工作。由于SMA具有高的功重比、大的应变和相当大的输出力，是一种理想的用于驱动软体机器人的人工肌肉，但对其中间驱动状态缺乏控制限制了SMA驱动软机器人的可控性和性能。基于模型的反馈控制器，考虑SMA应变、温度增量和驱动器负载增量的约束，实现了对SMA复合驱动器的精确运动控制。因此，开发出了一系列灵巧手、软夹持器、软臂等软体机器人。镓基共晶合金如EGaIn和Galinstan是室温液态金属，具有许多优异的性能，已被证明是广泛应用的材料。