Valve Demultiplexing for Soft Robots

Fluidic matrix circuits using Venturi tubes

This design uses an array of fluidic lines attached in series with venturi tubes. When the outlet one channel is blocked, this creates backpressure while an open outlet generates vacuum. Each row of actuators are all connected to a single inlet and each column of actuators are all connected to a single outlet, so manipulating the flow into and out of specific rows and columns will allow the user to select exactly which actuator is addressed.

Jadhav S. , Glick P. E., Ishida M., Chan C., Adibnazari I., Schulze J. P., Gravish N., Tolley M. T. (2023) "Scalable Fluidic Matrix Circuits for Controlling Large Arrays of Individually Addressable Actuators", Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2300011. 

3D printed valve demultiplexer

We built off of previous designs such as Quake microfluidic valves and the soft demultiplexer (Bartlett et al) to create a multimaterial 3D printed version. These previous designs use perpendicular fluidic lines separated by deformable membranes so that flow through one channel can deform the membranes that block flow through the orthogonal channels. In our work, we print the rigid housings and channels as well as the soft membranes in a single part. 3D printing has the potential to be integrated directly into the structure of a robot, not only saving the weight of many pumps and valves but using the already existing structure of the robot to save more bulk.

(unpublished, led by Bilige Yang - ask me for more details!)