Tokyo Institute of Technology · Engineering
Professor Ryota Kobayashi's research lab specializes in the design and development of soft robotics, with a focus on tensegrity structures and advanced artificial muscles. The lab explores modular, compliant robotic systems that can adapt to unknown and complex environments—such as caves or space—through active deformation mechanisms like stretching, bending, and torsion. A key emphasis is placed on enhancing the durability and performance of thin McKibben muscles and novel muscle arrangements, such as the '4/3 muscle winding' and parallel-configured artificial muscles, to enable high-force, high-efficiency actuation. The lab also investigates bio-inspired actuation principles, such as ratchet-based motion, to achieve high work output in soft mechatronic systems.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
The primary role of a robot exploring an unknown space is to investigate the state and the spatial shape of the environment. We have designed a soft robot that aims to move forward in an unknown space as it recognizes and adapts to the spatial shape of the environment. We previously reported that soft tensegrity and recurrent neural network can be used to realize tensegrity structure shape recognition. In this study, a tensegrity robot was designed to actively generate propulsive force as it pre
Tensegrity structures have been actively studied in recent years because they are lightweight, compliant, and flexible, which are properties not typically found in conventional robots. This structure can be modularized to create soft robots that operate in unknown environments such as cave or space with more complex and effective behavior. The basic deformation elements in modularization are stretching, bending, and torsion. Among them, torsional motion is important for proper manipulation and r
Significant progress has been achieved in the development of tensegrity robots with rolling capabilities. However, because rolling robots operate passively due to gravity, they are limited to certain environments. So, our aim is to enhance the versatility of tensegrity robots by modularizing a six-bar tensegrity structure, enabling the robot to operate in more diverse environments. Thus far, we have developed an active and large stretch module and a torsion module with six-bar tensegrity. In thi
The McKibben muscle can produce a high force-to-mass ratio, beneficial for various applications in the soft mechatronics field. The thin McKibben muscle, which has a small diameter, has the advantage of a high force-to-mass ratio and sufficient flexibility for use in a bent state. This flexibility permits the realization of flexible mechatronics. However, the thin McKibben muscle is easily broken in a bent state while it is very durable in a straight state. Over repetitive operations, the fibers
The McKibben muscle, widely employed in antagonistic drive robots, exhibits approximately 20% contraction under pneumatic pressure but lacks crucial passive extensibility. Previous attempts to achieve passive extensibility resulted in reduced overall contraction ratios due to the series connection of elongation and contraction sections. This study proposes a novel artificial muscle design that achieves extension through external force by arranging extensible and contractile components in paralle
Various soft actuators have been developed in the past, achieving flexible motion. However, soft actuators that combine high force and high work have not yet been realized. The ratchet movement between actin and myosin, which causes muscle contraction in living organisms, could potentially lead to such high-efficiency soft actuators. In this paper, we describe a thread-based soft linear actuator inspired by this biological principle. The mechanism of this actuator utilizes the interaction betwee
This paper describes a soft robot that aims to move forward in an unknown space as it recognizes and adapts to the spatial shape of the environment. It was previously reported that soft tensegrity and Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) can be used to realize tensegrity structure shape recognition. In this study, a tensegrity robot was designed to actively generate propulsive force as it presses its body against a wall in its surrounding environment. This robot design includes a novel artificial musc
This paper describes the behavior of tensegrity structures under axial loading. We have previously developed a tensegrity structure that can expand and contract significantly by integrating it with a thin McKibben-type artificial muscle. By applying axial loading to this structure, the axial force characteristics of the structure can be obtained. Simulations of the force characteristics were performed and compared with experimental results. The results show that the mass-to-weight ratio is appro
Soft actuators made of flexible materials, such as rubber and polymers, have possibilities that conventional solid actuators do not have, such as no unnecessary force is applied and the object is not damaged, and the flexible mechanism allows quick operation. In this paper, we describe a transport mechanism that we believe can be achieved by using conductive threads. We believe that this mechanism can be realized by switching the thread to which high voltage is applied. In the future, we plan to
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