A Magnetorheological Fluid-based Damper Towards Increased Biomimetism in Soft Robotic Actuators

Damping properties in biological muscle are crit-ical for absorbing shock, maintaining posture, and positioning limbs and appendages. When creating biomimetic robots, the ability to replicate the dynamics of biological muscle is neces-sary to reproduce behaviors seen in an animal model. However, the damping properties of existing soft artificial muscles are difficult to predict and tune to match specific muscles as may be needed in biomimetic robots. Here, we present the design, manufacturing, and characterization of a novel soft damper to enable a greater degree of biomimetism in these soft actuators. The damper is composed of magnetorheological fluid contained within an elastomeric shell, which is cast using low-cost 3D printed parts and commercially available urethane rubber. We demonstrate that the force-velocity response over a velocity range of 0.1 to 10 mm/s is proportional to applied magnetic flux densities between 0.12 and 0.31 T. In the presence of a 0.31 T magnetic field from a small permanent magnet, the damper is capable of a maximum damping force increase of 13.2 N to 15.5 N relative to the 0 T control, at a compression depth of 7.9 mm, which is larger than that of several previously reported centimeter-scale dampers. As a proof-of-concept for integration with a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM), we use two parallel dampers to reduce the oscillations of a rapidly pressurized McKibben actuator. The ability to modulate the force-velocity performance of our elastomeric damper paves the way for custom damping profiles that can be used to improve biomimetism in soft robotic actuators.