A Dual‐Origami Design that Enables the Quasisequential Deployment and Bending Motion of Soft Robots and Grippers

Abstract

Soft fluidic actuators produce continuous and life‐like motions that are intrinsically safe, but current designs are not yet mature enough to enable large deployment with high force and low‐cost fabrication methods. Herein, soft fluidic actuators with two superimposed origami architectures are reported. Driven by a fluid input, the presented dual‐origami soft actuators produce quasisequential deployment and bending motion that is guided by unsymmetric unfolding of low‐stretchable origami components. The dominance between the deployment and bending can be shifted by varying the unfolding behavior, enabling preprogramming of the motion. The proposed origami‐inspired soft actuators are directly fabricated by low‐cost fused deposition modeling 3D printing and subjected to heat treatment postprocessing to enhance the fluid sealing performance. Finally, soft gripper applications are presented and they successfully demonstrate gripping tasks where each requires strength, delicacy, precision, and dexterity. The dual‐origami approach offers a design guidance for soft robots to embody grow‐and‐retract motion with a small initial form factor, promising for applications in next‐generation soft robotic systems. An interactive preprint version of the article can be found here: https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.22541/au.163698906.68661340.