Soft robots have struggled to support large forces and moments while also supporting their own weight against gravity. This limits their ability to reach certain configurations necessary for tasks such as inspection and pushing objects up. We have overcome this limitation by creating an electrically driven metamaterial soft arm using handed shearing auxetics (HSA) and bendable extendable torque resistant (BETR) shafts. These use the large force and torque capacity of HSAs and the nestable torque transmission of BETRs to create a strong soft arm. We found that the HSA arm was able to push 2.3 kg vertically and lift more than 600 g when positioned horizontally, supporting 0.33 Nm of torque at the base. The arm is able to move between waypoints while carrying the large payload and demonstrates consistent movement with path variance below 5 mm. The HSA arm's ability to perform active grasping with HSA grippers was also demonstrated, requiring 20 N of pull force to dislodge the object. Finally, we test the arm in a pipe inspection task. The arm is able to locate all the defects while sliding against the inner surface of the pipe, demonstrating its compliance.

翻译：软体机器人长期以来难以在支撑自身重力对抗的同时承受较大的力和力矩，这限制了其达到特定构型的能力，而这些构型对于诸如检测和向上推动物体等任务至关重要。我们通过使用手性剪切拉胀材料（HSA）和可弯曲可伸展抗扭（BETR）轴，创造了一种电驱动的超材料软体手臂，从而克服了这一限制。该设计利用HSA的大力和扭矩承载能力以及BETR的可嵌套扭矩传递特性，构建出强壮的软体手臂。我们发现，HSA手臂能够垂直推动2.3千克的物体，在水平放置时可提升超过600克，并在基座处支撑0.33牛·米的扭矩。该手臂能够在携带大负载的同时在路径点之间移动，并表现出路径方差低于5毫米的一致性运动。此外，还展示了HSA手臂使用HSA夹持器进行主动抓取的能力，需要20牛的拉力才能移走物体。最后，我们在管道检测任务中测试了该手臂。手臂能够在与管道内表面滑动接触的同时定位所有缺陷，证明了其顺应性。