The advent of soft robots has solved many issues posed by their rigid counterparts, including safer interactions with humans and the capability to work in narrow and complex environments. While much work has been devoted to developing soft actuators and bioinspired mechatronic systems, comparatively little has been done to improve the methods of actuation. Hydraulically soft actuators (HSAs) are emerging candidates to control soft robots due to their fast responses, low noise, and low hysteresis compared to compressible pneumatic ones. Despite advances, current hydraulic sources for large HSAs are still bulky and require high power availability to drive the pumping plant. To overcome these challenges, this work presents a new bioinspired soft and high aspect ratio pumping element (Bio-SHARPE) for use in soft robotic and medical applications. This new soft pumping element can amplify its input volume to at least 8.6 times with a peak pressure of at least 40 kPa. The element can be integrated into existing hydraulic pumping systems like a hydraulic gearbox. Naturally, an amplification of fluid volume can only come at the sacrifice of pumping pressure, which was observed as a 19.1:1 reduction from input to output pressure. The new concept enables a large soft robotic body to be actuated by smaller fluid reservoirs and pumping plant, potentially reducing their power and weight, and thus facilitating drive source miniaturization. The high amplification ratio also makes soft robotic systems more applicable for human-centric applications such as rehabilitation aids, bioinspired untethered soft robots, medical devices, and soft artificial organs. Details of the fabrication and experimental characterization of the Bio-SHARPE and its associated components are given. A soft robotic squid and an artificial heart ventricle are introduced and experimentally validated.

中文翻译：

---

Bio-SHARPE：用于机器人和医疗应用的仿生软高纵横比泵元件。


软机器人的出现解决了刚性机器人带来的许多问题，包括更安全地与人类互动以及在狭窄和复杂的环境中工作的能力。虽然人们在开发软致动器和仿生机电系统方面投入了大量工作，但在改进致动方法方面所做的工作相对较少。与可压缩气动执行器相比，液压软执行器 (HSA) 具有快速响应、低噪音和低滞后性，是控制软机器人的新兴候选者。尽管取得了进步，但目前大型 HSA 的液压源仍然体积庞大，并且需要高可用功率来驱动泵站。为了克服这些挑战，这项工作提出了一种新型仿生软质高纵横比泵送元件（Bio-SHARPE），用于软质机器人和医疗应用。这种新型软泵元件可将其输入量放大至少 8.6 倍，峰值压力至少为 40 kPa。该元件可以集成到现有的液压泵系统中，例如液压变速箱。当然，流体体积的放大只能以牺牲泵送压力为代价，观察到输入压力与输出压力减少了 19.1:1。新概念使大型软机器人主体能够由较小的流体储存器和泵装置驱动，从而有可能降低其功率和重量，从而促进驱动源的小型化。高放大率还使软体机器人系统更适用于以人为本的应用，例如康复辅助设备、仿生无绳软体机器人、医疗设备和软体人造器官。给出了 Bio-SHARPE 及其相关组件的制造和实验特性的详细信息。 引入软体机器人鱿鱼和人造心室并进行实验验证。