Development of Silicone Outer Shell Type Pneumatic Soft Actuator

抄録

The pneumatic soft actuators have both passive flexibility of the casing and active flexibility through pressurizing and depressurizing. These features are expected to be human-friendly actuators because they enable the approach of using an original soft system by controlling the internal air pressure. The current pneumatic soft actuator has two technical points of interest; control method of driving direction and operating pressure level, requiring an actuator to match these points. In this study, a pneumatic soft actuator with a silicone rubber case, SCSRA (Sponge Core Soft Rubber Actuator) was proposed and developed to respond to the requirement. Thought some experimental results, it is cleared that SCSRA controlled the driving system by realizing a large stroke in the low-pressure region of 30kPa or less as well as peeling and adhering the silicone film.