Design of a Bio-inspired Soft Robot for Handling Large Objects in Transport EngineeringTrung Tin Bui Duc, Jovana Jovanova&nbsp;Delft University of TechnologyFaculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials EngineeringDepartment of Maritime and Transportation TechnologyTransport Engineering and Logistics&nbsp;AbstractBio-inspired designed systems draw inspiration from nature in order to solve a specific problem. In contrast to conventional systems, bio-inspired systems often use soft materials and soft actuators in order to perform flexible movements or to perform specific tasks similar to the way living organisms perform. This method of designing is currently widely being used to design machines and equipment in medical and product handling applications. The designed product could provide solutions to complex problems such as flexible movement within the human body or the handling of different types of objects in a warehouse. The possibilities are endless and applying bio-inspired design in other fields of application will provide an interesting insight.&nbsp;This research will explore the possibility of bio-inspired design in transport engineering application with the focus on the handling of objects commonly shipped at terminals such as containers, bulk material or loose goods. While repetitive human labour is slowly being replaced by machines, there are still transport operations that are more difficult to replace. Sensitive, irregular shaped or different sized objects should be handled and transported with care. Using bio-inspired design in this area could provide interesting possibilities in the design of a pick and place machine. Adding sensors and soft actuators to this design could make it perform faster, more flexible and safer compared to the current rigid systems such as grabs from a crane.&nbsp;The methodology of this research involves literature and market research in order to understand the current state of bio-inspired design in transport engineering application. Different methods will then be compared based on different criterias. After evaluating these methods of soft robotics, an upscaled robot for transport engineering will be designed and modelled in CAD. Additive manufacturing and conventional moulding techniques could provide the prototyping of the design on a small scale. This research will provide the motivation, a conceptual design, FEA model and analysis of this design. And this designed system will be able to adapt its shape in order to pick and place different types of objects using a design inspired from nature.&nbsp;Keywords: bio-inspired design, soft robotics, pick and place machine, transport engineering, FEA model

Design of a Bio-Inspired Soft Robot for Handling Large Objects in Transport Engineering

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/SMASIS/SMASIS2021/volume/85499

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