FlowIO Pneumatics Development Platform for Soft Robotics
Channel: SoftRoboticsIO
Date: 2021-06-30

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FlowIO is a modular development platform that makes prototyping in soft robotics and programmable materials incredibly easy. 

FlowIO is to pneumatics what Arduino is to electronics - a miniature platform with software toolkit for control, actuation, and sensing of soft robots and programmable materials, enabling researchers, artists, designers, and makers to unleash their creativity.

FlowIO consists of a set of reconfigurable, magnetically-connected modules. The main module features over a dozen different integrated sensors and 5 user-programmable pneumatic I/O ports, where each port supports inflation, vacuum, release, pressure-sense, pressure-hold, and flow-rate variability. Three pump modules exist that users can connect to the main module to satisfy a broad range of pressure, flow-rate, and size needs of users - just by swapping a module. Additional expansion modules can be connected to FlowIO via a 14-pin expansion port or via Bluetooth to greatly extend FlowIO’s capabilities with additional sensing and actuation modalities. Accessory modules enable FlowIO to be easily integrated into various wearable and non wearable projects. FlowIO is fully compatible with Arduino and JavaScript and comes with multiple libraries and APIs. There is also a Web-GUI that enables control of FlowIO directly from the Google Chrome web browser!