Two missing components for Solid Media Transmission: Amplifiers and manifolds

Solid Media Transmission (SMT) is a new technology for transmitting robot actuation. SMT is similar to pneumatic or hydraulic transmissions, but uses solid balls and spacers rather than fluids to transmit force and displacement. SMT has been developed recently as a promising solution for specialized robot applications, including the challenges of confined space and strong magnetic field in Magnetic Resonance (MRI) scanners. Until now, SMT has lacked two capabilities compared to hydraulic and pneumatic devices: (1) manifolds, which can balance force among multiple inputs, and (2) amplifiers, which enable displacement scaling by trading force for displacement resolution. This paper introduces an SMT implementation for each of these missing components, provides scalable designs, parametric optimizations, hardware verifications, and ends with suggestions for future work.