A Study of Active Cord Mechanisms -Basic Design of Pneumatically Driven Active Cord Mechanism-

This paper describes mobile robotic systems known as Active Cord Mechanisms (ACMs). The systems have articulated bodies composed of serially connected units that can actively bend and stretch. One such example of a mobile ACM is the Slim Slime-I. It is composed of a series of interconnected pneumatic 3D modules. The 3D module is thus termed because of its three degrees of freedom: pitch, yaw and stretch. Furthermore, each module contains a variety of features: an air pressure distribution mechanism to reduce the amount of tubes contained, a pneumatic drive system with a pair of solenoid valves to save energy, a bellows drive system with buckling prevention, a shell mechanism with a displacement limit, and a photo sensor to record displacement and generate a restoring force.