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Title: Programmable Switching of Fluids via Pre-Twisting
Manipulating airflow is important for controlling pneumatically actuated soft robots, however, current switching techniques suffer from leakage under high pressure (>200 kPa) or require a complex fabrication process. We propose a new method for reliably and repeatably cutting off airflow by harnessing pre-loaded torsional forces applied to our tubing. The switching distance and hysteresis of our pre-twisted tubing are programmable by varying the tube length and the twisting angle. Our experiments demonstrate the use of pretwisted tubing to implement CMOS equivalent fluidic switches configured as NOT-, AND-, and OR-gates, and a distance sensor for feedback control for the oscillation of a PneuNet. Our approach of pre-loading tubes with a torsional force allows for simplicity, integrated functionality, and the capability of manipulating high-pressure, fluidic signals mainly at the cost of tubing.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2237506
PAR ID:
10532013
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
IEEE
Date Published:
ISBN:
979-8-3503-8181-8
Page Range / eLocation ID:
882 to 887
Format(s):
Medium: X
Location:
San Diego, CA, USA
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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