Recently, soft robots using soft materials are presented. Thanks to soft materials, soft robots have flexible, highly-stretchable or adaptable features. However, due to the flexibility of soft material, it is hard for soft robots to control accurately or perform high force. To deal with these limitations, variable stiffness technology, which enables the stiffness control of structure, has been developed. In this research, a dual-stiffness structure that is actuated by the assembly of two flexible structures are presented. Each flexible structure consists of flexible film part and rigid parts placed at regular intervals. The flexibility of film between rigid parts allows each structure to move softly. On the other hand, by combining two structures rigid part of each part constrain the degrees of freedom of the other side part. And this causes the stiffness of whole structure to be increased. This paper will cover concepts, design, analysis and experiments of this structure.

• 최재혁(Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University) | Jae-Hyeok Choi
• 이대영(Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University) | Dae-Young Lee
• 조규진(Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University) | Kyu-Jin Cho Corresponding author