The Soft Compiler: A Web-Based Tool for the Design of Modular Pneumatic Circuits for Soft Robots

Kavli Affiliate: George M. Whitesides

| First 5 Authors: Lauryn Whiteside, Savita V. Kendre, Tian Y. Fan, Jovanna A. Tracz, Gus T. Teran

| Summary:

Developing soft circuits from individual soft logic gates poses a unique
challenge: with increasing numbers of logic gates, the design and
implementation of circuits leads to inefficiencies due to mathematically
unoptimized circuits and wiring mistakes during assembly. It is therefore
practically important to introduce design tools that support the development of
soft circuits. We developed a web-based graphical user interface, the Soft
Compiler, that accepts a user-defined robot behavior as a truth table to
generate a mathematically optimized circuit diagram that guides the assembly of
a soft fluidic circuit. We describe the design and experimental verification of
three soft circuits of increasing complexity, using the Soft Compiler as a
design tool and a novel pneumatic glove as an input interface. In one example,
we reduce the size of a soft circuit from the original 11 logic gates to 4
logic gates while maintaining circuit functionality. The Soft Compiler is a
web-based design tool for fluidic, soft circuits and published under
open-source MIT License.

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