Abstract
Pneumatic soft actuators are a highly researched topic in soft robotics. The paper discusses the design and analysis of an Asymmetric Flexible Pneumatic bellow Actuator (AFPBA). This kind of actuator is cheap, easy to produce, reliable and durable. Soft grippers commonly use this actuator to pick fragile objects. The objective is to design an actuator which produced the maximum bending and study the effect of external corrugation and eccentricity on the actuator to select the optimal design. Optimum eccentricity has been determined by two factors – bending and stability. The model has also been tested at different pressures. Nitrile rubber was used as the material to design and analyze the actuator. Finite element analysis was employed to conduct the structural analysis of the actuator. In conclusion, an actuator with a semicircular cross-section and semi-circular corrugation for the bellows gave the maximum bending. For the particular design selected with an eccentricity of 0.87 provided the maximum bending of 30.764 degrees at working pressure (5 bar).
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