Spring-reinforced pneumatic actuator and soft robotic applications

作者：Boyu Zhang, Xiangming Gu, Jiayuan Liu, Jingyi Kang, Chengquan Hu, Hongen Liao · 发表于：Smart Materials and Structures · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1088/1361-665x/ad74bf · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Soft Robotics and Applications、Robot Manipulation and Learning、Hydraulic and Pneumatic Systems

Abstract Compared to rigid-structure robots, soft robots possess higher degrees of freedom and stronger environmental adaptability, which has aroused increasing attention in the robotic field. Among them, soft pneumatic robots have excellent performances in various practical applications. However, the nonlinearity and instability of pressure response of soft actuators caused by lateral expansion come to a great challenge. To address this problem, we proposed to embed a spring constraint layer around each single air chamber. Following the design concept, we obtained single-cavity and multi-DoF pneumatic actuators and evaluated their elongation and bending characteristics. Experimental results demonstrated that our proposed actuators have more linear pressure response as well as higher consistency. Eventually, through robotic applications, including soft robotic hand and gripper our proposed actuators could facilitate flexible manipulation and elaborate performance.