Design and Manufacturing of an Affordable Soft-Robotic Manipulator for Minimally Invasive Diagnosis

Soft robotic manipulators are inherently compliant thus they are ideally suited for minimally invasive diagnosis and intervention. In addition, soft robotics allows for affordable manufacturing, thus it could be adopted in low and middle-income countries where conventional robotics is prohibitively expensive. In this work, the design, manufacturing, and actuation strategy of an affordable soft robotic manipulator is presented. The manufacturing process does not rely on sophisticated technologies, and the pneumatic actuation does not require digital pressure regulators. Instead, a low-cost solution consisting of a needle valve operated by a servo motor is employed. The prototype is assessed with experiments that demonstrate its functionality.