Design of Soft Rigid Devices for Assistive Robotics and Industrial Applications

Soft robots are getting more and more popular in rehabilitation and industrial scenarios. They often come into play where the rigid robots fail to perform certain functions. The advantage of using soft robots lies in the fact that they can easily conform to the obstacles and depict delicacy in gripping, manipulating, and controlling deformable and fragile objects without causing them any harm. In rehabilitation scenarios, devices developed on the concept of soft robots are pretty helpful in changing the lives of those who suffer body impairments due to stroke or any other accident. These devices provide support in carrying out daily life activities without the need and support of another person. Also, these devices are beneficial in the training phase where the patient is going through the rehabilitation phase and has to do multiple exercises of the upper limb, wrist, or hand. Similarly, the grippers developed on the basic principle of soft robots are very common in the industries or at least getting common. Their advantages are a lot as compared to the rigid robotics manipulators. Soft grippers tend to adapt to the shape of the object without causing any damage to it, providing a stable grasp. It can also help reduce the complexity in the design and development, for example, underactuated. Underactuated grippers use the minimum number of actuators to provide the same function that requires more actuators with a rigid gripper. Also, the soft structure allows to design specific trajectories to complete a certain grasping and manipulation task. This thesis presents devices for rehabilitation and assistive application to help people with upper limb impairment, especially wrist and hand functions. These devices have been designed to provide the people, with limited capabilities of hand and wrist functions, to live their lives with ease without being dependent on any other family member. Similarly, I present different soft grippers and a soft environment that provides different advantages and can do various grasp and manipulation tasks. I have presented results for each device, rehabilitation and assistive devices are used by a patient suffering from stroke and having limited movement of wrist and hand function. At the same time, the grippers are supported with a set of experiments that provide deep insight into the advantages of each gripper in industrial applications.