Development of new soft actuator using magnetic intelligent fluids for flexible walking robot

Abstract

The purpose of my work is to develop a new soft actuator with magnetic intelligent fluids such as a magnetic fluid and a magneto-rheological fluid for flexible walking robots. For this purpose, the authors have produced two types of soft magnetic materials. One is called the magnetic fluid rubber that consists of an isoparaffin-based magnetic fluid and elastic silicone rubber. The other is called the magneto-rheological fluid rubber that consists of a polyalphaolefin-based magneto-rheological fluid and elastic silicone rubber. We have developed four types of cylindrical soft actuators using proposed soft magnetic materials. An experimental system was constructed and a response test was made using it. A Laser displacement sensor was employed to find the relationships between the magnetic flux density and the displacement of soft actuator. The experiment showed that the responsibility of soft actuator with the magnetic fluid rubber indicated the best performance. In addition, we operated four electromagnetic coils to control the direction and the displacement of soft actuator. As a result, we have succeeded in moving the tip of soft actuator like drawing a circle. We represented a first possible step towards the development of soft actuator with magnetic functional fluids for flexible walking robots.