A bio-inspired soft planar actuator capable of broadening its working area

Abstract

Soft actuators are an integral part of many soft robots that make them compliant and adaptable. In many previous studies, soft pneumatic actuators were designed and utilized generally to create bending motions. Due to the limited capabilities becomes ineffective where axial elongation is required. Here, we introduce a planar bioinspired soft pneumatic actuator capable of increasing its working area through both longitudinal elongation and bending motions, separately and or simultaneously. The actuator consists of two similar linear soft pneumatic actuators with agap between them. To study the performance of the planar actuator, four normalized sizes of gaps were considered between the linear actuators, analyzed through FEM, and validated by conducting experimental tests. On average, experimental results on the planar actuator demonstrate that the working area is 2.40 times bigger than the working area that just resulted from the bending motion. The results also indicate that the actuator can attain stability under 0.8 s, create a blocked force up to 18 N, and a bending angle up to 240° at the pressure 3.0Bars. Broadening the working area can be an outstanding feature that enables soft robots to be versatile and advantageous in many more applications in real and unstructured environments.