Deformation control of laminated foam based soft actuator using pressure propagation difference

Abstract

Recently exploring for a possibilities different from conventional robots, various type soft actuators and its applications have studied. Especially, pneumatic soft actuators have the advantage in lightweight and powerful. The features of this idea are simplified systems, almost all interfaces can be configured as a flexible structure. In particular, pneumatically driven soft actuators have been studied. Since these are driven using a limited pneumatic path, the pneumatic path usually increases in proportion to the degree of freedom. In this study, we develop to generate multiple deformations in a foam laminated foam based soft actuator using one air pressure path by using the difference in compression characteristics of foams, especially Open cell foam and Full open cell foam against pressure.