Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 01, 2022 - June 04, 2022
We developed a soft pneumatic actuator that can bend and deform with a large curvature, mimicking the deformation of a pill bug by the folded structure. This paper describes the design using a structure that folds and deforms by using deformable materials and optimizing the folding part to minimize the bending stress generated during folding. Driving the actuator with vacuum pressure helps obtain fail-safe characteristics and constrain the crease’s bending angle. It has been possible to drive the actuator with a vacuum pressure acting uniformly in the flow channel by increasing the stiffness of the parts not involved in the deformation.
