Received October 13, 2020, accepted October 19, 2020, date of publication October 22, 2020, date of current

version November 4, 2020.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3032983

Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments

Using Bionic Omnidirectional Bending Actuator
WENKAI HUANG 1, (Member, IEEE), ZHIPENG XU 2, JUNLONG XIAO 2, WEI HU 2,

HUOQIU HUANG 2 , AND FOBAO ZHOU 2

1 Center for Research on Leading Technology of Special Equipment, School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou
510006, China
2 School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China

Corresponding author: Wenkai Huang (16796796@qq.com)

This work was supported by the Guangzhou Science and Technology Planning Project under Grant 202002030279.

ABSTRACT Soft robots have the characteristics of good adaptability to an environment. But at present, most
soft robots only complete a single specific task, and as a result, their ability to adapt to complex environments
is limited. In order to solve the weak ability of soft robots to adapt to complex and diverse environments,
this paper presents a new bionic omnidirectional bending actuator (BOBA) inspired by leeches, caterpillars,
and other mollusks. BOBA has less radial expansion, fast response, good flexibility, and omnidirectional
bending. Using modular methods, it can be quickly assembled into a soft robot with a variety of motion
modes. Experiments show the multimodal soft robot can climb vertical walls, transition from one surface to
another, climb stairs, leap obstacles, cross narrow pipes, and move with heavy objects. This greatly improves
the ability of soft robots to adapt to complex and diverse environments.

INDEX TERMS Multimodal soft robot, omnidirectional bending actuator, mathematical modeling,
reinforcement learning.

I. INTRODUCTION
In real life, we need to complete a lot of special tasks such
as rescue and relief work and monitoring and measurement
that can involve moving through narrow and lengthy pipes,
climbing stairs, crawling up vertical walls, and even transi-
tioning from one surface to another. When a robot performs
a task, the surrounding environment it faces is very complex
and diverse, and it is far from able to complete the task if it
only has the ability to adapt to one kind of environment. As a
result, more and more researchers are exploring the design of
robots suitable for complex and diverse environments.
Soft robots have very good flexibility, ductility, and man–
machine interaction and is more adaptable to the environ-
ment than a traditional rigid robot. In recent years, with the
development of intelligent materials, soft robots have become
a hot spot in the field of robot research. Robots have been
developed, one after another, with designs using compressed
gas to drive movement [1]–[4], shape memory alloy [5], [6],
dielectric materials [7], [8], and chemical combustion to gen-
erate the driving force [9]. One of the most common designs is
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and
approving it for publication was Yangmin Li . legs [15]. Alar Ainla proposed a soft rotating actuator that
a soft robot that uses compressed gas as a driving force. They
are usually made of silicone or rubber with a unique internal
cavity that is filled with compressed gas. The materials used
enable the robot to move, making it compliant and able to
interact well with its environment [10].
At present, most soft robots are used on flat ground, and
some researchers have designed suitable soft crawling robots
that imitate the movements of caterpillars and inchworms.
Because those animals do not have hard bones, they can
more easily produce complex deformations, such as twist-
ing, contracting, extending, and even a combination of these
movements. They have almost unlimited freedom as they
rely on the wriggling of body muscles to achieve move-
ment [11], [12]. Other researchers have designed soft robots
that imitate quadruped reptiles or starfish. In comparison
to soft robots that can only wriggle on flat smooth sur-
faces, robots that imitate multi-legged mollusks have better
performance by being able to execute movements such as
crossing uneven surfaces and jumping over gullies [13], [14].
Robert F. Shepherd et al. designed a four-legged multi-gait
robot made of silicone that could be made to crawl at dif-
ferent gaits by giving different control sequences to its four

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VOLUME 8, 2020 193827

TABLE 1. Comparison of adaptability of soft robot to environment.
can be assembled with four brakes to simulate the walking of
a quadruped robot [16]. Dylan Drotman et al. proposed a leg
drive module that allows a robot to walk on uneven surfaces
by using four drives attached to the robot’s legs. However,
because it is made of 3D printed materials, the robot has poor
flexibility and cannot withstand atmospheric pressure, and
the bending degree is relatively small, making the robot move
slowly [30]. Because, in practice, soft robots that can only
move on horizontal ground are far from being able to adapt
to complex and diverse environments, some researchers have
begun designing soft robots that can climb walls vertically
to adapt to more complex environments. Yichao Tang et al.
designed an amphibious soft climbing robot that mimics the
movement of an inchworm and can move on smooth, semi-
smooth, and even wet ground or vertical walls [26]. However,
the robot can only climb in a plane and cannot vertically climb
a wall from the ground, which greatly limits its environmental
adaptability. Melinda Malley et al. proposed a rollover robot
that can climb up vertical walls and also transition from one
surface to another [28]. Ayato Kanada et al. proposed a bionic
leech robot with a flexible body extension and two suction
cups at the end in order to allow the robot to transition to
a larger plane. Compared with robots based on the constant
curvature model, the large deformation of the leech-like robot
expands its working space, and the transitional movement
from 0◦ to 180◦ angles when moving from one surface to
another was successfully realized in the experiment [25].
However, in the face of narrow and lengthy pipelines,
the above robots would be helpless, so soft pipeline robots
were developed [22]. Hiyuan Zhang et al. proposed an omni-
directional bending actuator of parallel pipe composed of
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
three telescopic pipes in parallel. By controlling the length of
the three telescopic pipes, the whole actuator can be extended
and bent. However, because the actuator is joined with con-
necting rings, it is difficult to model and control, and it is
not compact enough [23]. Xinda Qi et al. proposed a sinuous
soft robot that moves through pipes by means of waves.
The robot’s design makes use of 3D printing technology and
modular methods to join it to a snake-like robot that is easy
to control and can move through pipes of different diameters
and bend through the joints [21]. However, the soft pipe robot
is designed specifically for pipeline work, and the friction
between the robot and the pipeline is the factor that enables it
to realize its motion. Therefore, applying this robot in other
complex environments is quite challenging.
Despite the development of such a variety of soft robots,
we can see in Table 1 that most of the soft robots men-
tioned above have a relatively singular adaptability meant
for a specific environment, so they still have a poor ability
to adapt to complex environments. They can only climb on
vertical walls, walk on the ground, or crawl in pipes, and
they all move slowly. As a result, there remains a need to
develop a type of soft robot with strong adaptability and
perfect function. In order to solve this problem, a new bionic
omnidirectional bending actuator (BOBA) is proposed in this
paper. BOBA has quick response speeds, good ductility, and
excellent flexibility. According to the idea of modularization,
by using BOBA, a soft robot can execute different kinds
of motion by quickly changing the execution parts on both
ends, enabling it to move on a plane, vertically climb a
wall, transition from one plane to another, and also travel
in pipes.
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
TABLE 2. Comparison of past actuators.
The main contributions of the present research are as
follows:
1) This study proposes BOBA, which is constructed
with four independent symmetrical cavities. The mul-
tiple cavities are connected in a series, which can
effectively reduce radial expansion and avoid the
mechanical fatigue and modeling difficulties caused by
fiber-wound wires. In addition, BOBA demonstrates
good bending performance, reaching more than 200◦ ,
which makes it easy for the robot to move in the form
of overturning, which greatly improves its speed and
enables it to cross large obstacles and transition planes.
BOBA has a strong contraction ability, which can
extend 60 mm at a time, so the robot can quickly walk
on a plane or shuttle through a pipeline by wriggling.
2) The ingenious manufacturing method proposed in this
paper makes BOBA compact in structure and sim-
ple in material composition, aspects that are con-
ducive to the establishment of a mathematical model.
According to the cantilever beam model and using the
Euler–Bernoulli principle, BOBA was analyzed stat-
ically, and the relationship of pressure and bending
angle was deduced. Then, the accuracy of the mathe-
matical model was verified through experiments. The
foregoing attributes enable the robot to accurately con-
trol the BOBA angle, as well as its motion posture.
3) The BOBA can be assembled into a robot with specific
tasks according to different needs. It can walk and turn
in a straight line on a plane, climb and turn on a vertical
wall, transition from one surface to another, climb over
obstacles, and shuttle through narrow pipes, thereby
making the robot highly adaptable to its environment.
4) Reinforcement learning is used to judge whether the
wall is smooth, so as to determine whether the robot
can continue to move forward, which greatly improves
its safety in the execution of tasks by preventing the
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robot from falling due to uneven surfaces. Therefore, it
solves the problem in existing soft robots that have
weak adaptability to complex environments.
In the second section of this paper, the design ideas
for BOBA and a multimodal soft robot are introduced.
In section 3, we analyze the static model of BOBA under the
action of compressed gas and derive the kinematic model.
In section 4, the bending of BOBA in relation to differ-
ent pressures is analyzed with the finite element analysis
(FEA) method. In the fifth section, the paper introduces an
ingenious method for manufacturing BOBA with complex
cavities and then reviews the use of BOBA as a small module
to assemble different robots. In the sixth section, the build-
ing of the control platform for the robot is reviewed, and
a wall is judged to be smooth by reinforcement learning.
Moreover, the accuracy of the mathematical model is verified
by testing the performance of BOBA.
II. DESIGN
A. DESIGN OF THE BIONIC OMNIDIRECTIONAL BENDING
ACTUATOR (BOBA)
Table 2 shows that most of the omni-directional bending
actuators are pneumatic, and the materials are silica gel or
rubber. When the actuator is inflated, due to the long cavity,
a large radial expansion ensues, which will lead to power
wastage, reduction of energy utilization efficiency, and inac-
curacy of control. Therefore, the existing omni-directional
bending actuators generally use filament winding to reduce
radial expansion, but the fiber will cut the soft actuator.
Moreover, the added fiber will change the elastic modulus
of the whole actuator material, which makes mathematical
modeling difficult.
The results are obtained from the Euler–Bernoulli principle
EI and the geometric relation θ = ρ
1 M L
ρ =
θ M
= (1)
L EI
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where ρ is the radius of curvature, M is the bending moment,
E is Young’s modulus, I is the moment of inertia of the
section, and L is the length of the side silica gel. It can be
seen that when the pressure is equal (the constant on the
right side of the equation), the longer the length of the side
silica gel, the greater the corresponding bending angle, that
is, the more serious the radial expansion. The actuator in
this paper is improved according to this principle, imitating
the body structure of leech in series. Thus, the silica gel
on the side of each layer of small cavity is 4 mm and the
length is very short. Consequently, during inflation, the radial
expansion is small and there is no need for filament winding,
which can prevent the actuator from being cut by fibers,
thus improving the service life and establishing an accurate
mathematical model. In this paper, a practical and reliable
fabrication method is developed that enables us to fabricate
multi-layer small cavity series actuators. When the actuator is
inflated, although the whole actuator is bent to 180 degrees,
each small cavity only needs to expand a little, which reduces
the radial expansion, as shown in Fig. 2(c), (d).
FIGURE 1. The body structure of a leech and the way it moves. First,
the tail suction cup sticks to the ground, and then the soft body can cause
forward displacement of the head suction cup by stretching and bending.
Finally, the head suction cup sticks to the ground, and the cycle is
repeated to achieve the effect of motion.
Based on the excellent motion performance of a leech, this
study imitated the leech body structure of links in a series
to design the BOBA, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig.2. The
actuator was composed of multiple annular segments in a
series, and each annular segment was composed of four small
independent cavities that were uniformly and symmetrically
distributed around the center of the circle. Each small cavity
layer is connected to the corresponding small cavity of the
adjacent upper and lower layers but is not connected to the
other three cavities in the same layer. Therefore, the whole
bending actuator has four large cavities, each of which has a
driving force when compressed gas is applied. When different
air pressure is applied, coupled with the driving force gener-
ated by the four cavities, the actuator can bend in different
directions.
The structure comprising multi-layer small cavities in
series imbues BOBA with a very good performance. In this
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
FIGURE 2. The design of the bionic omnidirectional bending actuator.
paper, by comparing the actuator proposed by Matthew and
others, the difference between the two and the improvement
of the actuator in this paper is illustrated. Matthew et al.
proposed a new type of actuator (V-SPA) consisting of a
foam core and a brush-coated silicon rubber layer, forming
a closed structure. After activation, the vacuum is applied to
the internal volume through the supply channel. The entire
V-SPA structure collapses inward, producing a pulling force
that can be used for driving. It can be combined to achieve
object manipulation, vertical window climbing, rolling, wave
forward, and other tasks. Notably, the internal structure is
different. V-SPA is internally filled with foam and externally
coated with silica gel due to the blocking effect of foam,
and can only be actuated by vacuum contraction, making the
V-SPA bending lesser, even though the bending degree of
multiple modules in series is still small. In the present study,
because the inside of the actuator is hollow and inflated,
the curvature of BOBA can be very large, reaching up to 200◦ .
The bending of the actuator must be greater than 180 degrees
to achieve an overturning motion. In addition, the shape of
V-SPA, the porosity of foam, the type and composition of
foam, and the elastomeric coating material will greatly affect
the performance of V-SPA. These parameters are difficult
to measure, making mathematical modeling very difficult.
By contrast, BOBA is entirely made of silica gel and is
integrated. The material composition is single. It can be used
to analyze the relationship between bending and pressure
by mathematical modeling. Furthermore, the V-SPA is com-
posed of three independent contraction small actuator units
in parallel, while BOBA contains four large cavities, each of
which is composed of 22 layers of small cavities. The actuator
is actuated by coupling the four cavities, which makes the
bending degree of freedom of the V-SPA higher than that of
the proposed actuator [35].
B. MODULAR ASSEMBLY OF MULTIMODAL SOFT ROBOT
1) BIONIC OMNIDIRECTIONAL WALL-CLIMBING ROBOT
(BOWR)
The BOBA proposed in this paper has rapid response speed
and good omnidirectional bending performance. In order to
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
FIGURE 3. Three combinations of multimodal soft robots. (a) Bionic omnidirectional wall-climbing robot. (b) Bionic
omnidirectional peristaltic robot. (c) Bionic omnidirectional tube-climbing robot.
allow the robot to climb walls efficiently, we designed a
bionic omnidirectional wall-climbing robot capable of flip-
ping, as shown in Fig. 3(a). First, the suction cup on the end
of BOWR holds onto the wall. Then, the body can bend in
any direction, allowing the suction cup at the robot’s head to
also adhere to the wall. Next, the suction cup at the other end
is detached from the wall, and the body position is reversed
so that the suction cup can adsorb the wall. In this way,
BOWR has forward displacement. The method of overturning
is different from the principle of bending and arching the body
of an inchworm.
2) BIONIC OMNIDIRECTIONAL PERISTALTIC ROBOT (BOPR)
This robot mainly moves forward on the ground. It can move
in a straight line, backward in a straight line, or turn left
or right, as shown in Fig. 3(b). At the moment the vac-
uum suction cup at one end of BOPR adsorbs the ground,
the vacuum suction cup at the other end stops adsorbing.
Then, it is inflated to make the body elongate, and the suction
cup at the end of BOPR adsorbs the ground. Next, the tail
sucker relaxes, and then the body exhausts. Under the elastic
restorative force of the silica gel, the tail sucker has forward
displacement.
3) BIONIC OMNIDIRECTIONAL TUBE-CLIMBING
ROBOT(BOTR)
This robot is mainly designed to pass through narrow and
lengthy pipelines, as shown in Fig. 3(c). Initially, the balloon
at the end expands into contact with the tube, providing
friction against gravity and allowing the robot to be stable in
the tube. The second step is to inflate the body in an axially
elongated way, and then inflate the balloon at the end of the
robot to make contact with the tube, thus gaining friction
VOLUME 8, 2020
against gravity at the robot’s head. The third step is to exhaust
the body and contract the body in the radial direction. Under
the action of the elastic restorative force of silica gel, the tail
end gains upward displacement. In a word, BOTR wriggles
by linear contraction and elongation similar to earthworm,
which is different from the principle of Inchworm bending
and arching.
III. MATHEMATICAL MODELING
A. STATIC MODELING
The BOBA is made of silica gel, which has a nonlinear
constitutive relation, which makes mathematical modeling of
the BOBA very difficult. Therefore, for the convenience of
calculation, the following considerations are proposed:
a) BOBA is made up of 22 small cavities in a series.
When compressed gas fills them, while each small
cavity only has a slight bending deformation, the whole
BOBA will have a large bending deformation that can
effectively prevent the radial deformation and avoid
the balloon effect. Therefore, it can be considered that
the total bending angle of BOBA is equal to the linear
superposition of the bending angle of each cavity layer.
b) BOBA is made of nonlinear material silica gel. In order
to facilitate the calculation, it is considered that the
deformation of BOBA is linear and satisfies Hooke’s
law when BOBA has a small deformation.
1) INFLATE TWO CAVITIES
As shown in Fig. 4, when cavities 1 and 2 of BOBA are
inflated, they bend to the opposite side. Fig. 4(b) is a curved
diagram of the cavity of a floor. When BOBA is curved, you
can think of it as a cantilever beam model. Using the Euler–
Bernoulli principle [36], the radius of curvature of the BOBA
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 W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA

According to the geometric relationship, the moment arm

of pressure generated by air pressure on the neutral axis is
L1 = r sin α (7)
Thus, the moment of pressure generated by air pressure on
the neutral axis is
dM1 = dF1 L1 = Pr 2 sin α drdα (8)
Under pressure, the cavity will inevitably expand in the
radial direction, as shown in Fig. 4(b). This means the radius
will stretch, and in turn stretch 1R, which cannot be ignored.
TABLE 3. Relationship between pressure and elongation of silicone.

Through experiments, we determined the relationship

between air pressure and silica gel thin wall elongation,
FIGURE 4. Schematic diagram of cavity bending for each layer. (a) A as shown in Table 3. In order to simplify the calculation,
cross-section of the cavities in each layer. There is a total of four small
cavities per layer. To simplify calculations, the cross structure in the
the direct proportion function was used to fit, and k = 3.2 ×
middle is ignored. (b) Diagram of cavity bending in a layer with air in only 10−8 was obtained.
cavities 1 and 2.
1R = kP (9)
On the silicone cross-sections of cavity 1 and cavity 2, the
configuration in Fig. 4(b) is given by torque of the total pressure on the neutral axis is
Z R+kP Z π Z R+kP Z π
1 M1
= (2) M1 = dM1 = Pr 2 sin α drdα
ρ1 EI 0 0 0 0
where ρ1 is the radius of curvature, M1 is the bending 2
= P (R + kP)3 (10)
moment, E is Young’s modulus, and I is the cross-section 3
moment of inertia. According to (2), (4), and (10), the relation between
If the cross structure in the middle is ignored, the pressure and bending angle of a layer of cavity can be
cross-section of BOBA can be considered a ring, and then expressed as

π D4 − d 4

2PL (R + kP)3
I= (3) θ1 = (11)
64 3EI
According to the principle of linear superposition, the total
where D is the outer diameter of the cross-sectional ring, and
bending angle of BOBA in the case of aeration of two
d is the inner diameter of the cross-sectional ring.
cavities is
According to the geometric relationship, the corresponding
44PL (R + kP)3
bending angle of a layer cavity under the action of torque is θ10 = 22θ1 = (12)
3EI
L
θ1 = (4) 2) INFLATE ONE CAVITY
ρ1
The difference between one cavity and two cavities is that
where L is the original length of a cavity, and θ1 is the angle the angle of integration is π2 for one cavity and π for two
at which the cavity bends. cavities. Similarly, by analogy to (10), when only one cavity
On the silica gel cross-sections of cavity 1 and cavity 2, is inflated, the torque of the cavity 1 section’s pressure on the
an area microelement is taken that can be expressed as neutral axis is
Z R+kP Z 3π
4
dA1 = rdrdα (5) M2 = dM2
π
0 4
Then the pressure generated by air pressure over the area Z R+kP Z 3π √
4 2
element is = Pr sin β drdβ =
2
P (R + kP)3
π 3
0 4
dF1 = PdA1 = Prdrdα (6) (13)
where P is the pressure of the air in the cavity. where β is the integral angle.

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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA

By analogy to (12), when a cavity is inflated, the total where L is the original length, 1L is the amount of elongation
bending angle of BOBA is along the axis, and A04 is the total cross-sectional area after
√ inflation.
22 2PL (R + kP)3
θ2 = 22θ2 =
0
(14) According to (18) and (19),
3EI
(2π + 4) ReL
A04 = (20)
(L + 1L)
In the process of BOBA elongation, the silica gel produces
a tensile force that is equal to and opposite to the balance
force generated by the pressure, so it can be calculated using
the two-force balance principle. First, the tensile force F41
generated by silica gel is calculated.
F41 = σ A04 (21)
σ = εE (22)
1L
ε= (23)
L
where σ is the stress and ε is the strain. according
to (20)– (23).
1LEA04 (2π + 4) ReE1L
F41 = = (24)
L (L + 1L)
Then the pressure generated by the pressure is calculated
as shown in Fig. 5(b). The cross-sectional area of the cavity
exerted by the air pressure is
S4 = π (R + kP)2 − 4Re (25)
The pressure generated by the pressure is
FIGURE 5. Schematic diagram of four inflatable cavity sections. (a) The
state before inflation, where A4 is an area microelement on the side of
h i
silica gel. (b) The state after inflation; the inner radius of the ring extends F42 = PS4 = P π (R + kP)2 − 4Re (26)
to R + kP, and the silica gel cross-sectional area decreases to A04 .
According to the balance of the two forces,
(2π + 4) ReE1L
3) INFLATE FOUR CAVITIES F41 =
(L + 1L)
As shown in Fig. 5(a), the silica gel cross-sectional area is h i
calculated before inflation. First, the cross-sectional area of F42 = P π (R + kP)2 − 4Re (27)
the ring is calculated, and a small element of area is taken to
The elongation of a cavity is calculated as
obtain
PL π (R + kP)2 − 4Re
 
dA41 = Redγ (15) 1L = (28)
(2π + 4) ERe − p π (R + kP)2 − 4Re
 
where e is the width of the ring and γ is the angle of
integration. Because the actuator has 22 layers, when the four cavities
Then, the cross-sectional area A42 of the middle cross are inflated together, the relation between the length of the
structure is calculated, and it is considered a combination of axial elongation of BOBA and the air pressure is
four rectangles in order to simplify the calculation 22PL π (R + kP)2 − 4Re
 
1L = 221L =
0
A42 = 4Re (16) (2π + 4) ERe − p π (R + kP)2 − 4Re
 

Thus, the total cross-sectional area before inflation is (29)

Z 2π
A4 = A41 +A42 = Redγ + 4Re = (2π + 4) Re (17) 4) AIR IN THREE CAVITIES
0
When three cavities are inflated, it can be considered as
The silica gel volume of the BOBA layer is follows: first, cavities 2 and 3 are inflated, and the actuator
V = A4 L = (2π + 4) ReL (18) will not bend but will instead elongate in the radial direction.
The calculation method for four cavities can be referred to.
According to the principle of volume invariance, the vol-
Then, on the basis of the extension, cavity 1 is inflated so that
ume before and after inflation is equal.
the calculation is similar to that of only one cavity except that
V = A04 (L + 1L) (19) the original length is changed.

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 W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA

First, cavity 2 and cavity 3 are inflated. At this time, the

area of the air pressure applied to the cavity is only half that
of the four cavities. By analogy with (25), the area of the air
pressure applied to the cavity can be obtained
1
π (R + kP)2 − 2Re
S3 = (30)
2
Similarly, by analogy with (28), the amount of actuator
elongation caused by aeration of cavity 2 and cavity 3 is
h i
PL 21 π (R + kP)2 − 2Re
1L 3 = h i (31)
(2π + 4) ERe − P 12 π (R + kP)2 − 2Re

At this point, on the basis of the original elongation, cavity FIGURE 7. After the i + 1 movement, from a plane perspective,
the coordinate displacement of the moving end relative to the fixed end
1 is inflated. By analogy with (14), the relation between bend- is (xi +1 , yi +1 ). The same color represents the same cavity.
ing angle and pressure can be obtained when three cavities are
inflated
√ Y-axis, and Z-axis of the i+1 position relative to the i position,
22 2P (R + kP)3
θ3 = (L + 1L 3 ) respectively.
√ 3EI Combined with Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, this makes available
22 2P (R + kP)3
=
 
3EI 1 0 0
 h i  RXi+1 =  0 1 0  (34)
PL 12 π (R + kP)2 − 2Re 0 0 1
× L + h i  
(2π + 4) ERe − P 21 π (R + kP)2 − 2Re cosαi+1 0 sinαi+1
RYi+1 =  0 1 0  (35)
(32)
−sinαi+1 0 cosαi+1
 
B. KINEMATICS MODELING cos2θ i+1 −sin2θi+1 0
Set Dk as the position of the suction end relative to the world RZi+1 =  sin2θi+1 cos2θ i+1 0 (36)
coordinate after the k movement. As shown in Fig. 6, Ti+1 = 0 0 1
[xi+1 , yi+1 , zi+1 ]T are the displacements generated when the θi+1 for the i + 1 times movement relative to the state of the
robot successfully attracts the i + 1, that is, the coordinate i time movement angle, θi+1 = atan yxi+1 i+1
.
translation transformation matrix of the i + 1 relative to the i. The initial position of the fixed end (the suction end) of the
robot in world coordinates is D0 , D0 = T0 = [x0 y0 z0 ]T .
Then the kinematics equation of the robot can be obtained
as
k  Y 
X j
Dk = ( Ri ) · Tj , R0 = 1 (37)
i=0
j=0

IV. FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATIONS

FIGURE 6. Robot i + 1 movement coordinate change diagram; the blue
represents the robot body. The fixed end coordinates of the robot are
(xi , yi , zi ), and the moving end coordinates are (xi +1 , yi +1 , zi +1 ). After
the movement, the coordinates will also change accordingly.
Ri+1 is the transformation matrix of the Euler angular
rotation matrix of the i+1 with respect to the i position, which
can be obtained with
Ri+1 = RXi+1 · RYi+1 · RZi+1
where RXi+1 , RYi+1 , and RZi+1 are the transformation matri-
ces of the Euler angular rotation matrices around the X-axis,
In order to better understand the movement of BOBA and the
bending conditions when different cavities are inflated, this
study used ANSYS Workbench to establish the FEA model
for BOBA and simulate it so as to play a prior role in the
subsequent control.
First, we built a three-dimensional model of BOBA and
obtained the hyperelastic model of silica gel material Yeoh3:
C10 = 90036Pa, C20 = −3880.6Pa, C30 = 1524Pa.
We also measured the density ρ = 1072.7kg/m−3 . In order to
simulate more authentically, we must consider the following
two points:
(33) 1) Because the BOBA structure is slender and has many
internal cavities, it is significantly affected by gravity.
2) While the fixed part restricts the robot, when the cavity
is filled with gas, the cavity near the fixed part will

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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
FIGURE 8. (a)–(c) The bending deformation of BOBA under the pressure of 0–100 kPa when 1–3 adjacent cavities are inflated. (d) The elongation
and deformation of BOBA at a pressure of 0–80 kPa when all four cavities are inflated.
expand and squeeze against the fixed part, resulting in
greater deformation.
In Workbench, a tetrahedron was used for grid division,
the same gravity as the experiment was given, the contact
relationship between the BOBA outer wall and fixed parts
was set, and the following four actuation modes were simu-
lated. The FEA simulation results are shown in Fig. 8.
V. FABRICATION
In previous studies, soft robots have been made by construct-
ing two halves of the robot separately and then using adhesive
to glue the halves together. This method will make the robot
more easily broken when charged with high air pressure,
greatly reducing the life of the robot [37]. In addition, it is
difficult to build a robot with a complex interior cavity, which
makes the robot less effective. In this paper, a new method is
proposed. When the silica gel is not fully solidified, the new
silica gel fluid is quickly poured in so that the new silica gel
penetrates the incompletely solidified silica and they bond.
Experiments show that this method can achieve the effect
VOLUME 8, 2020
of a complete inverted mold with a very firm bond. This
new method can be used to fabricate complex cavities that
withstand higher atmospheric pressures.
The production process is as follows:
Step 1: We chose medical silica gel (PS6600, Shenzhen
Yipingyiping Model Material, China) and mix silica gel A
and silica gel B in equal amounts, stirring with a glass rod for
about one minute. After they are evenly mixed, they are put
into a vacuum barrel so the air can be extracted by a vacuum
machine and then the mixture is left to sit for another five
minutes.
Step 2: As shown in Fig. 9(a), mold A and mold B are put
together and sealed with adhesive tape to prevent the silica gel
from flowing out. Then the silica mixture is poured into the
gap between mold A and mold B. When pouring, the mold
should be shaken back and forth to prevent bubbles forming;
otherwise, it will fail. Wait for about 4 h. The silica gel mix-
ture should be just solidifying after about 4 h, and there will
still be some viscosity to it. At that point, it should be taken
out and labeled as tablet 1. Move on to step 3 immediately.
193835

FIGURE 9. The BOBA production process.
With this method, the silica gel can fully bond without the
use of silica gel bonding liquid, so the nature of the mate-
rial will not changes and it can be considered an integrated
production.
Step 3: As shown in Fig. 9(b), the newly prepared silica gel
mixture is poured into mold C, and then tablet 1 is inverted
on the silica gel mixture so that the newly prepared silica gel
mixture and tablet 1 are fully bonded. As before, after about
4 h, this mixture should be removed and labeled as tablet 2.
This procedure is repeated for each slice.
Step 4: As shown in Fig. 9(c), tablet 2 is placed on mold
D, and fresh silica gel mixture is poured in. A wooden stick
is placed in the middle in order to create the other half of
the air hole in the middle. Finally, sheet 3 is placed upside
down on the silica gel mixture, and they are left to fully bond
together for about 4 h before being taken out to complete the
production of an omnidirectional bending actuator.
VI. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS
A. BOBA’S STATIC CHARACTERISTICS
In order to measure the static characteristics of BOBA, exper-
imental platforms were built to measure the relationship
of bending angle and output torque with filling pressure,
as shown in Fig. 10.
In addition, the relationship between BOBA’s output
torque and air filling pressure is drawn in Fig. 11. The
experiment showed that BOBA was elongated, and the output
force was greatest when all four cavities were inflated and
the output force was 10 N at 50 kPa. According to derived
statistics and FEA analysis data, and in combination with the
parameters given in Table 4, the relationship between BOBA
bending angle and filling pressure is drawn in Fig. 12–Fig. 15,
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
FIGURE 10. (a) The experimental platform for measuring the relationship
between BOBA air pressure and bending angle. (b) The experimental
platform for measuring the relationship between BOBA air pressure and
output torque.
and the differences between the derived statistics formula,
FEA analysis data, and experimental data are analyzed.
According to (14), the relationship between the math-
ematical model, FEA simulation model, and experimental
data from BOBA when it is inflated in one cavity is drawn
in Fig. 12. On the whole, the mathematical model and simu-
lation model can fit the experimental data well, which proves
the correctness of the mathematical model.
As shown in Fig. 12, when the pressure was less than
70 kPa, the mathematical model was slightly higher than
the FEA simulation model and the experimental data, but
the difference was not significant. When the pressure is
greater than 70 kPa, the mathematical model and exper-
imental data will be significantly greater than the FEA
simulation model. This is because the nonlinear material
and silica gel under high pressure mean the silica gel thin
wall will become more and more thin. In turn, the cavity’s
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
TABLE 4. The robot parameters.
FIGURE 11. (a)–(d) The relationships between air pressure and corresponding output force when 1–4 cavities are inflated, respectively.
radial expansion will be more and more obvious, result-
ing in increasingly greater pressure acting on the reactions
between the cavities and causing the larger overall BOBA
bending angle. However, the mathematical model and FEA
simulation model can still better predict the actual BOBA
bending experiment results when the temperature is less
than 100 kPa.
According to (12), the relationship between the mathemat-
ical model, FEA simulation model, and experimental data
when two cavities are inflated is shown in Fig. 13. As can be
seen, on the whole, when BOBA is inflated in two cavities,
VOLUME 8, 2020
the mathematical model and FEA simulation model fit the
experimental data well, which proves the correctness of the
mathematical model. When the pressure is less than 60 kPa,
the error between the mathematical and FEA simulation mod-
els and the experimental data is almost negligible. When the
pressure is greater than 60 kPa, the experimental data will
be significantly larger than the mathematical and simulation
models for the same reason as when a cavity is inflated.
But you can see that when a cavity is inflated, the water-
shed is 70 kPa, and when a cavity is inflated, the watershed
is 60 kPa.
193837

FIGURE 12. The relationship between the air pressure and the
corresponding bending angle when the BOBA is inflated in a single cavity.
FIGURE 13. The relationship between the air pressure and the
corresponding bending angle when BOBA is inflated in two cavities.
FIGURE 14. The relationship between the air pressure and corresponding
bending angle when BOBA is inflated in three cavities.
This is because when two cavities are inflated, the sil-
ica gel wall will be thinner and the radial expansion of
the cavity will be more obvious, making the force exerted
by pressure on the cavity greater than when one cavity is
inflated. As a result, the experimental data from BOBA will
be 10 kPa earlier than the data from the mathematical model
and the FEA simulation model. However, the mathematical
and FEA simulation models can still better predict the actual
BOBA bending experiment results when the pressure is less
than 100 kPa.
According to (32), the relationship of the mathematical
and FEA simulation models and the experimental data when
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
three cavities are inflated is drawn in Fig. 14. As shown,
on the whole, when BOBA is inflated in three cavities,
the mathematical model and FEA simulation model can fit
the experimental data well, which proves the correctness
of the mathematical model. When the three cavities are
inflated, the bending effect of BOBA is not as good as that
with two cavities due to the coupling and counteraction of
the pressure forces in the three cavities. Moreover, when it
is greater than 80kPa, BOBA will reach the limit. Therefore,
when the three cavities are inflated, the pressure inside the
cavity cannot be too high or BOBA will be damaged.
FIGURE 15. The relationship between air pressure and the corresponding
elongation when BOBA is inflated in four cavities.
According to (29), the relationship of the mathematical
and FEA simulation models with the experimental data when
four cavities are inflated is drawn in Fig. 15. As shown,
on the whole, when BOBA is inflated in four cavities, within
the allowable range of error, the mathematical model and
simulation model fit the experimental data well, which proves
the correctness of the mathematical model. However, it can be
seen that within 0–80 kPa, the mathematical model and FEA
simulation model are slightly larger than the experimental
data. This is because the cross structure in the middle of
BOBA restricts elongation, but it is difficult to describe this
problem in the mathematical model.
B. STEP RESPONSE
Step response is an important dynamic measure of BOBA,
reflecting the speed at which BOBA moves from sleep to
work. In this study, the motion capture system observed the
process of BOBA filling compressed air in an instant.
As shown in Fig. 16, under the action of the step sig-
nal, which is the instantaneous filling of compressed gas,
the bending of BOBA from 0◦ to 135◦ required 0.7 s. When
releasing the compressed gas, due to the nonlinear material
properties of BOBA, a mechanical fatigue effect will occur.
It took 1.9 s to recover from 135◦ to 0◦ , which was longer
than the time required for aeration. Experimental data show
that BOBA has excellent dynamic performance and can meet
the requirements of fast bending tasks, which means that a
the mobile robot with BOBA can move quickly to achieve
specific functions.
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
FIGURE 16. The step input response of BOBA.
FIGURE 17. Control system of multimodal soft robot. (a) Schematic
diagram of control system. (b) Hardware connection diagram of control
system.
C. CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN
As shown in Fig. 17, the experimental control system mainly
consists of a PC, DC power source, STM32 microcontroller,
relay groups, solenoid valve groups, throttle position, and gas
source. The experiment consists of two air sources. One is
compressed gas generated by an air compressor, which was
used to inflate the multimodal soft robot. The other is an
air suction pump, which provides negative pressure to the
suction cup, allowing the multimodal soft robot to adsorb
the ground. The PC sends control instructions to the STM
microcontroller through a serial port, and the STM32 micro-
controller sends control instructions to the relay group and
then controls the closure of the solenoid valve group to realize
operation of the pneumatic circuit. The pressure reducing
valve is used to regulate the air pressure of the pneumatic cir-
cuit so that each pneumatic circuit’s air pressure value can be
controlled.
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D. REINFORCEMENT LEARNING TO DETERMINE
ADSORPTION AREA
Reinforcement learning is the strategy of observing the state
and feedback provided by the environment in interaction
with the environment. The soft robot uses a camera to con-
stantly capture images, reinforcing the strategy of determin-
ing whether or not a surface is to be adsorbed by means of
state sets, action sets, state transfer tables, and rewards.
FIGURE 18. (a), (b) Smooth surfaces that upon which soft robots can be
adsorbed. (c) Gully ground. (d) Rough road surface that robots cannot be
adsorbed on.
Fig. 18 shows the environments in which soft robots can
and cannot normally adsorb. In this study, Deep Q-Learning
(DQN) was used to construct a dichotomy neural network to
judge whether a surface was smooth. If the surface found by
a soft robot is smooth, the robot will adsorb that part of the
area. If it is not smooth, the robot will continue to take photos
to find the next smooth surface [38], [39].
For the depth of the building to adapt to the special environ-
ment of intensive neural network study, we collected images
of smooth and non-smooth walls in daily life as the data
sets of the network. There were 300 images in the training
set, among which smooth and non-smooth accounted for
1/2 respectively. The testing set contained 75 images, and the
proportion of the training set to testing set was 4:1, which
is a small data set. During the training, the data set images
were processed, and the pixel value of the image was mapped
to 0–1. The image data were centralized by mean removal
so that the pixel mean and standard deviation of the image
were 0 and 1, respectively. This data centralization conforms
to the law of data distribution, and it is easier to achieve the
generalization effect after training. Random image rotation,
picture translation, and brightness adjustment using enhanced
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 W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA

image processing technology can reduce risk in a small sam-

ple data set to expand and enhance regularization of the data
to improve the model and accuracy of identifying smooth
surfaces and make the network more robust. The accuracy of
our model is 97%.
The idea behind DQN is to image features using a convolu-
tional neural network (CNN) to first encode and then connect
characteristics to use the full layer to output the optimal value
function Q (38). Learning in the ith of the iteration using the
following loss function is defined as in (39). The Bellman
optimization equation was used to calculate the long-term
returns, and the mean square error function was conducted
to update the weight. The gradient in (40) can be obtained
by differentiating the loss function according to the network
weight. As shown in Fig. 19, images were cut into 150 × 150
pixels for color images, and the image is processed by CNN
to form a 128-dimensional feature vector(from conv2d_5 to
dense_2 in Fig. 19), taking the 128-dimensional feature vec-
tor of the connection layer as input and output two Q-values
(from dense_2 to q_outputs in Fig. 19). The one-hot coding of
the tag is used as another input and dot product with these two
Q-values (from q_outputs, actions_in- puts to multiply_2 in
Fig. 19), finally, add the two dimensions to get the Q function.

Q∗ (s, a) = max E rt + γ rt+1 + γ 2 rt+2 + . . .
π

|st = s, at = a, π (38)

The calculated value represents the sum of reward rt dis-

counted by strategy π = P(a|s) for observation value s and
action a at each time step t. In order to solve the instabil-
ity caused by reinforcement learning with approximate state
value functions in neural networks, experience playback [40]
and target networks [38] were used.

Li (θi ) = E(s,a,r,s )∼U (D) r + γ min Q s0 , a0 ; θi−


0
a0
 #2 FIGURE 19. Network structure of dichotomous DQN.
− Q (s, a; θi ) (39)

Here, γ is the discount factor that determines the vision
of the robot, θi is the parameter of Q network in step i, and
θi− is used to calculate the goal of step i. The target network
parameter θi− is updated by Q-network parameter θi every
C-step, and then remains unchanged during the two updates.

∇θi Li (θi ) = Es,a,r,s0 r + γ min Q s0 , a0 ; θi−1


a 0
 
− Q (s, a; θi ) ∇θi Q (s, a; θi ) (40)
E. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN OF MULTIMODAL SOFT ROBOT
1) BIONIC OMNIDIRECTIONAL WALL-CLIMBING ROBOT
(BOWR)
The bionic omnidirectional soft bending actuator designed in
this study has excellent motion performance, bending more
than 270◦ , and can realize omnidirectional bending with fast
response speed. Therefore, BOBA is equipped with suction
cups at both ends of the head and tail, forming a flip robot
similar to leeches.
As shown in Fig. 20, when BOWR moves, the suction cup
at the head begins to adsorb the wall, and then the BOBA
in the middle of the body bends. When the tail suction cup
fits the wall, the suction cup starts to adsorb the wall. When
the tail suction cup adsorbs the wall stably, the suction cup
at the head releases the negative pressure, and the BOWR
bends in the opposite direction. When the head suction cup
adheres to the wall, it starts to adsorb the wall. This cycling
of flipping forward lets the model achieve rapid movement.
The experimental results show that the average velocity of
BOWR is 15.5 mm/s on flat ground and 9 mm/s when moving
vertically on walls.
Mobile robots usually move on a plane, whether a slope,
flat ground, or wall, but that is as single function. BOWR

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FIGURE 20. BOWR can climb walls vertically.

FIGURE 21. BOWR transitioning from one surface to another.

FIGURE 22. (a) BOWR crossing gullies. (b) BOWR climbing stairs. (c) BOWR crossing obstacles. (c) BOWR climbing
steep slopes.

breaks through this obstacle. Because of its good flexibility,
ductility, and adaptability to the environment, the robot can
transition from one surface to another. As shown in Fig. 21,
the included angle between the ground and the wall is 90◦ ,
and the robot bends so that the suction cup on the head of
the robot can be adsorbed on the wall, and then the suction
cup on the ground is released. At the same time, the bending
actuator in the middle of the body is also released, realizing
the transition from the ground to the wall, greatly improving
the adaptability of the mobile robot.
In addition, BOWR uses the overturning flipping move-
ment to allow the robot to adapt to various environments.
As shown in Fig. 22, due to the overturning motion of the
robot and the large stride distance, the robot can easily cross

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FIGURE 23. BOTR climbing a vertical pipe.
FIGURE 24. BOPR with 1.4 kg load forward.
a gully, climb a ladder, cross obstacles ahead, and climb a
slope, breaking through the limitations brought by the uneven
road surface.
2) BIONIC OMNIDIRECTIONAL TUBE-CLIMBING ROBOT
(BOTR)
BOTR is specially designed to pass through narrow and
lengthy spaces, such as pipelines. As shown in Fig. 23, BOTR
can cross vertical pipelines. At the initial moment, the airbag
at the tail end expands and contacts the pipe, exerting a
pressure perpendicular to the pipe, thus producing a frictional
force opposite to the direction of gravity, which firmly fixes
the robot in the pipe so that it will not slide down. Next,
under the action of compressed gas, the middle part of the
body begins to expand and extend, pushing the head of BOTR
forward as a displacement. In the third step, the air bag on the
BOTR’s head begins to expand, squeezing the pipe to produce
friction opposite to gravity. The fourth step is to release the
air pressure from the air bag at the tail end and the body part
in the middle after the air bag and the pipe at the head of
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W. Huang et al.: Multimodal Soft Robot for Complex Environments Using BOBA
the BOTR are stable. Under the action of the elastic force,
the middle body is restored to its original length, and then the
BOTR moves forward.
3) BIONIC OMNIDIRECTIONAL PERISTALTIC ROBOT (BOPR)
BOPR, specially designed for peristalsis on flat pavement,
can drag a weight of 1.4 kg to move forward, demonstrating
the good application prospects for BOPR.
As shown in Fig. 24, at the initial moment, the tail sucker of
BOPR begins to adsorb the ground. Then the middle body is
filled with compressed gas and the body extends in the front
axial direction, with a maximum elongation of 60 mm. Then
the suction cup at the end of the head starts to adsorb the
ground, and after the adsorption is stable, the suction cup at
the end of the head and the body release the air pressure at the
same time. One action can drive the weight forward 60 mm.
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper discussed the study’s design of a multimodal
soft robot that can adapt to various environments and realize
various functions. Based on the theory of bionics, this study
designed the new actuator, BOBA, based on the excellent
motion characteristics of animals such as leeches, earth-
worms, and caterpillars.
According to the cantilever beam model and using the
Euler–Bernoulli principle, a static analysis of BOBA was
carried out and reviewed in this paper. The relationships
of the bending angle and the pressure of one cavity, two
adjacent cavities, and three cavities when filled with com-
pressed gas were derived, and a satisfactory nonlinear relation
was obtained so that the bending angle of the robot can be
accurately controlled. Furthermore, the relationship between
the elongation of BOBA and the pressure was deduced when
four cavities were simultaneously filled with compressed gas.
Based on BOBA, three kinds of soft robots were designed.
By quickly installing parts with specific functions in BOBA,
three kinds of soft robots with specific functions could be
formed, improving the adaptability of the robot to vari-
ous environments. BOWR can move at an average speed
of 15.5 mm/s on flat ground or climb walls vertically at an
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average speed of 9 mm/s by means of flip motion. In addi-
tion, BOWR can also transition from one surface to another,
cross gullies, cross obstacles, climb stairs, and navigate steep
slopes. BOPR can move on a plane and slope by creeping. The
biggest advantage of BOPR is that it can carry heavy objects.
Experiments showed that it can drag 1.4 kg objects to walk on
the flat road. BOTR is specially designed for crossing narrow
and lengthy horizontal and vertical pipelines.
Although the pneumatic control technology is relatively
fast and clean, due to the large volume and heavy weight
of the air pump, and the pneumatic control circuit is very
complex, multimodal soft robots must rely on the air tube,
which limits the range of motion and produces a binding
force, making control of the robot inaccurate. Future work
should be devoted to making the pneumatic control system
smaller in size and lighter in weight for integrating it in the
robot.
The multimodal soft robot based on BOBA is made of sil-
ica gel, which has a nonlinear property. Moreover, the internal
cavity is very complex, and it is very difficult to deduce an
accurate mathematical model, so the model we proposed is
derived by ignoring many factors. Therefore, if future work
can be analyzed with artificial intelligence technology, this
problem should be solved.
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[40] L.-J. Lin, ‘‘Reinforcement learning for robots using neural networks,’’ HUOQIU HUANG was born in Guangdong,
Ph.D. dissertation, School Comput. Sci., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pitts- China. He is currently pursuing the degree in
burgh, PA, USA, 1993. robotics engineering with Guangzhou University.
He currently studies robot design, control, and
sensors.
WENKAI HUANG (Member, IEEE) was born
in Guangdong, China. He received the B.S. and
M.S. degrees from the Guangdong University of
Technology and the Ph.D. degree from Guangzhou
University.
He became the Deputy Director of the Research
Center for Intelligent Equipment and Networked
Systems in 2018. His research interests include
robot vision, medical image processing, and robot
control technology.

ZHIPENG XU was born in Guangdong, China. FOBAO ZHOU was born in Guangdong, China.
He received the degree in electrical engineer- He is currently pursuing the degree in robotics
ing and automation from Guangzhou University, engineering with Guangzhou University.
in 2017. He currently studies in-depth learning, image
He is currently studying the design, modeling, processing, and robotics engineering.
and control of soft robotics.

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