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Robotic Barrier Construction through Weaved, Inflatable Tubes (to appear)

    Heather Jin Hee Kim, Haron Abdel-Raziq, Xinyu Liu, Alexandra Young Siskovic, Shreyas Patil, Kirstin H. Petersen, and Hsin-Liu (Cindy) Kao

    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2023

    Keywords: Soft Robotics, Vine Robots, Steering Mechanism, Active Extension
    PDF | DOI

    Abstract

    In this article, we present a mechanism and related control algorithm to autonomously construct light-duty, temporary barriers out of extruded, inflated tubes weaved around existing environmental features. Our extruded tubes are based on everted vine-robots and in this context, we present a new method to steer their growth based on active extension rather than compression. Towards their use as barriers, we characterize the ability of the tubes to withstand distributed loads. We further introduce a control algorithm which, given a feature map and the size and direction of the external load, can determine where and how to extrude the barrier. Finally, we showcase the potential of this method in an autonomously extruded two-layer wall weaved around three pipes. While preliminary, our work indicates that this method has the potential for the creation of, e.g., wind or snow shelters or blockades in cluttered environments, and future work may show how to achieve tighter weaves, how to leverage weave friction for improved strength, how to assess barrier performance for feedback control, and how to operate the extrusion mechanism off of a mobile robot platform.