Analysis of Double Helical Actuator Inspired by an Elephant's Trunk

抄録

We present a set of pneumatically driven double-helical soft actuators to realize elephant-trout-like functions that can softly grip by the entire body segment and perform manipulation while squeezing through narrow workspaces. This new actuator can realize all her six motion patterns of elephant torso in 1D/2D/3D space. In this article, we will focus on only his six patterns. First, the configuration and operating principle will be explained. Next, I will introduce the production process. Based on these results, we experimentally demonstrated that his prototype SEMI-TRUNK can grab a bottle and pour water into it, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed method.