抄録
We develop wave-shaped tubes to improve the bending performance of the bundled-tube locomotive device. If one of the tubes is pressured, the pressured tube inflates and the device bends. When a conventional tube is inflated, its diameter is increased, which prevents the device from moving in a small pipe. The proposed wave-shaped tube enables the device to bend without the diameter increment. The wave-shaped tube has thick and thin regions. The thin regions can inflate largely, whereas the diameter increment is inhibited by the thick regions. Therefore, the wave-shaped tube inflates only in the axial direction. We produced helix and braid type devices made of the wave-shaped tubes. The experimental data verify that these devices have better bending performance than the devices made of conventional tubes.
