Fabrication of soft actuator for extreme environment by molding of polyimide films

Abstract

In order to apply soft actuators to extreme environments, the actuators mainly composed of polyimide (PI) was developed. Previous PI film actuators had problems with the life of repeated operation and the difficulty of manufacturing. To solve these problems, a soft actuator was fabricated by using a heat compressed air molding of PI films. By pressing the heated PI film against a mold, the film is transformed into the shape of the mold. After molding, the three sides of a pair of PI films are welded to fabricate an air chamber, and the chamber is connected to a pipe. The relationship between applied air pressure, bending angle under no-load condition, and generating torque of actuator was evaluated. From these results, possibility of using the actuator for end effectors was shown.