Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PROBOSCIS (Proboscidean sensitive soft robot for versatile gripping)
Berichtszeitraum: 2020-11-01 bis 2022-07-31
The elephant proboscis represents a remarkable biological model for a ground-breaking new concept of robotic manipulation. Elephants can perform both strong and delicate, highly precise tasks supported by more than a hundred thousand muscles, and a rugged skin. In PROBOSCIS the main idea is to take inspiration from the anatomy and morphology of the natural proboscis, and from its gripping behaviour, to develop totally new soft robotic strategies for versatile robotic manipulation and establish a novel paradigm of tactile-based universal manipulation. This vision will be grounded on new developments in proprioceptive biomimetic artificial muscles, bioinspired tough tactile skin and 3D sensing strategies, multifunctional materials and 3D fabrication technologies, and bioinspired control for tactile-driven soft manipulation.
During the second reporting period the objective was to continue anatomical and behavioural studies and exploit the retrieved information to start fabricating the different components of the PROBOSCIS manipulator, developing suitable materials, printing processes, and the control system. Furthermore, first attempts of integration were envisioned.
During the second reporting period the objective was to continue anatomical and behavioural studies and exploit the retrieved information to start fabricating the different components of the PROBOSCIS manipulator, developing suitable materials, printing processes, and the control system. Furthermore, first attempts of integration were envisioned.
During the second reporting period (RP2) the research, administrative and financial, activities were smoothly coordinated by IIT in collaboration with all the partners. The criticalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency were managed. An AMENDMENT was asked and accepted for having an extension of the project duration of 6 months. WPs and task duration were modified accordingly, Covid-19 was introduced as a risk and a new Gantt was elaborated. Also confidentiality of some deliverables was changed from public to confidential. Furthermore, to proceed with experiments with animals as expected in WP3 the Zoosafari Park in Fasano (Italy) was identified as new experimenting site and introduced as subcontractor.
Both in presence and online internal meetings among partners have been organised, including a Plenary meeting organized by IIT in Genova.
Striking results have been obtained despite the issues related to Covid-19 restrictions and the prolonged effects of the pandemic and consequent worldwide lack of available materials which led to delays in prototypes fabrication.
The main research activities addressed and obtained results at a glance are:
• Conclusion of trunk anatomy exploration and development of an online virtual reality model (WP2 / UNIGE).
• Study of trunk skin morphology and mechanical characterisatio and development of biomechanical models (WP2/IIT) .
• Experiments with animals at ZooSafari park (WP3/IIT, SSSA).
• Development of the kinematic model of elephant trunk (WP3/SSSA).
• Investigation and optimization of functional materials for actuation and sensing (WP4/HUJI, PHC, IIT).
• 3D printing of large-scale flexible parts of the continuum arm (WP4/PHC).
• Fabrication of biomimetic proprioceptive actuator and modelling of the artificial arm (WP5/IIT).
• Identification of transduction principles for tough sensitive skin and fabrication of skin prototypes for dorsal and ventral skin with different properties. (WP6/IIT)
• Proof-of-concepts prototypes for the bioinspired tip (WP6/IIT)
• Development of a 1D dynamic model of an elephant trunk based on experimental data and of an open-loop control strategy based on a recurrent neural network (WP7/SSSA).
• Development and training of a hierarchical neural network for recognition and classification of objects with respect to their shape and softness respectively with the final objective to recognize real-world objects (WP7/SSSA).
• Definition of integration approaches for the actuators, sensitive skin, and control strategies in the continuum arm. Development of the PROBOSCIS early prototype (WP8/IIT).
Many papers showing project results have been published on high impact journals, and other works are submitted or under elaboration. Many conferences have been attended by the partners during which PROBOSCIS results have been shared with the scientific community. Two workshops have been also organized involving the project partners, one of which was sponsored by the project. Project results have been also shared with the general public by means of social events and exhibitions, radio interviews, participation to festival, news on media and newspapers.
PROBOSCIS has supported the training programme of a young professional photographer (Matteo Montenero, Parallelozero, https://parallelozero.com/) by designing and organizing a photo reportage about all research groups involved in the project. A photographic reportage was also promoted by the European Commission’s DG Communication in June 2022, made publicity available on EU Commission website https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/reportage/P-058324.
Both in presence and online internal meetings among partners have been organised, including a Plenary meeting organized by IIT in Genova.
Striking results have been obtained despite the issues related to Covid-19 restrictions and the prolonged effects of the pandemic and consequent worldwide lack of available materials which led to delays in prototypes fabrication.
The main research activities addressed and obtained results at a glance are:
• Conclusion of trunk anatomy exploration and development of an online virtual reality model (WP2 / UNIGE).
• Study of trunk skin morphology and mechanical characterisatio and development of biomechanical models (WP2/IIT) .
• Experiments with animals at ZooSafari park (WP3/IIT, SSSA).
• Development of the kinematic model of elephant trunk (WP3/SSSA).
• Investigation and optimization of functional materials for actuation and sensing (WP4/HUJI, PHC, IIT).
• 3D printing of large-scale flexible parts of the continuum arm (WP4/PHC).
• Fabrication of biomimetic proprioceptive actuator and modelling of the artificial arm (WP5/IIT).
• Identification of transduction principles for tough sensitive skin and fabrication of skin prototypes for dorsal and ventral skin with different properties. (WP6/IIT)
• Proof-of-concepts prototypes for the bioinspired tip (WP6/IIT)
• Development of a 1D dynamic model of an elephant trunk based on experimental data and of an open-loop control strategy based on a recurrent neural network (WP7/SSSA).
• Development and training of a hierarchical neural network for recognition and classification of objects with respect to their shape and softness respectively with the final objective to recognize real-world objects (WP7/SSSA).
• Definition of integration approaches for the actuators, sensitive skin, and control strategies in the continuum arm. Development of the PROBOSCIS early prototype (WP8/IIT).
Many papers showing project results have been published on high impact journals, and other works are submitted or under elaboration. Many conferences have been attended by the partners during which PROBOSCIS results have been shared with the scientific community. Two workshops have been also organized involving the project partners, one of which was sponsored by the project. Project results have been also shared with the general public by means of social events and exhibitions, radio interviews, participation to festival, news on media and newspapers.
PROBOSCIS has supported the training programme of a young professional photographer (Matteo Montenero, Parallelozero, https://parallelozero.com/) by designing and organizing a photo reportage about all research groups involved in the project. A photographic reportage was also promoted by the European Commission’s DG Communication in June 2022, made publicity available on EU Commission website https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/reportage/P-058324.
PROBOSCIS is expected to bring a significant impact in science and technology, as researchers expect to unveil principles of the trunk behaviour that can be adopted for novel grasping and manipulation technologies. Studies on biology and behaviour of the elephant trunk indeed produced for the first time totally new scientific results discovering anatomical details that have been never showed before. Acquired data allowed to develop a virtual-reality 3D model of the trunk for teaching and outreach purposes. Research on trunk behaviour is expected to be useful for conservation of the specie awareness and contribute to human activities for safe interactions and conflict avoidance.
The scientists aim at producing new robotic science by defining new paradigms for universal robotic manipulation. The main progress beyond the state of the art consists in the bio-inspired design of a continuum robotic manipulator, with no sharp distinction between arm and gripper, that achieves elephant trunk versatility by whole-arm grasping. This led to the development of new biomimetic artificial muscles, distributed soft and tough biomimetic sensing and integration strategies. Bioinspired control strategies will be crucial, like reaching strategies based on stereotypical motion and exploiting the environment and tactile cues to provide the robot with easily learnable models, bodily aware capability, and internal models of the environment. New developments in material science are also fundamental, as new tough but stretchable, functional materials for sensing and actuation are still under investigation with manufacturing processes suitable for printing large scale flexible components. Additive fabrication industries will benefit from the new functional material formulations and multiply their applicability to many fields.
The versatile grasping capabilities of PROBOSCIS shall open new possibilities for robotic dexterous manipulation in the academic and industrial research. In the long term, it will ease interaction with humans evolving as a ‘living’ assistant for people in difficult conditions. It could clean dust and other covering obstacles to detect victims against the ground in search and rescue scenarios with no vision conditions, and could lift and move a person to safe place. PROBOSCIS could find use in food industry, to handle various objects and estimate their state without relying on vision or in e-commerce and warehouse for picking and sorting multiple items in various shapes/materials together. Moving and manipulating deformable sheets of papers or fabrics are also challenging tasks expected to benefit from PROBOSCIS.
The scientists aim at producing new robotic science by defining new paradigms for universal robotic manipulation. The main progress beyond the state of the art consists in the bio-inspired design of a continuum robotic manipulator, with no sharp distinction between arm and gripper, that achieves elephant trunk versatility by whole-arm grasping. This led to the development of new biomimetic artificial muscles, distributed soft and tough biomimetic sensing and integration strategies. Bioinspired control strategies will be crucial, like reaching strategies based on stereotypical motion and exploiting the environment and tactile cues to provide the robot with easily learnable models, bodily aware capability, and internal models of the environment. New developments in material science are also fundamental, as new tough but stretchable, functional materials for sensing and actuation are still under investigation with manufacturing processes suitable for printing large scale flexible components. Additive fabrication industries will benefit from the new functional material formulations and multiply their applicability to many fields.
The versatile grasping capabilities of PROBOSCIS shall open new possibilities for robotic dexterous manipulation in the academic and industrial research. In the long term, it will ease interaction with humans evolving as a ‘living’ assistant for people in difficult conditions. It could clean dust and other covering obstacles to detect victims against the ground in search and rescue scenarios with no vision conditions, and could lift and move a person to safe place. PROBOSCIS could find use in food industry, to handle various objects and estimate their state without relying on vision or in e-commerce and warehouse for picking and sorting multiple items in various shapes/materials together. Moving and manipulating deformable sheets of papers or fabrics are also challenging tasks expected to benefit from PROBOSCIS.