Study on the brake operation of “Bridle Bellows”

Slim slime robot (SSR), that looks like an active cord mechanism (snake like robot) and is composed by units that can stretch, shrink and bend actively, is meant to be used for several tasks in narrow spaces such as moving under collapsed houses or for inspection of pipelines in plants. We propose a new concept named "bridle drive", that was developed from the prototype model of the units of the SSR-2.3 that has units of the bridle bellows composed of a large caliber bellows and wire lock systems. The use of the bellows allows to produce a high output using air pressure, and its shape can be changed by controlling the length of the wires. In this paper, to solve problems of the previous model of the bridle bellows, we modified its brake systems and propose a new control method named PCBS.