Design and Characterization of a Bellows-Driven Soft Pneumatic Actuator
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IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
Abstract
IEEE The soft robotics field investigates biological bodies' movements to develop soft actuation with similar behavior seen in nature. The skeletal muscles' movements are vastly mimicked in soft actuators; however, the contractions of smooth muscles are overlooked in soft robotics. Smooth muscles provide peristaltic contractions to the digestive system, such as the stomach, and their design challenges the limits of soft robot development that simulates digestive organs. We present a novel, bellows-driven soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) with a self-sensing capability that generates linear displacement to simulate a smooth muscle segment in a stomach. This SPA is proposed as a solution for applications such as stomach simulators. The SPA concept, design, fabrication, creep model, and experimental validation are presented in this paper. A lumped viscoelastic model presents the actuator's modeling to predict the SPA's displacement from a known applied pressure. The model is successfully validated, which resulted in a maximum displacement of 20.0 mm with a displacement error of 3%. A sensory system embedded in the SPA measures the displacement, and it is found that a force of 0 to 8.0 N is produced. A polynomial equation calibrates the sensor readings, with a displacement error of 5%. The results show the SPA's capability as a linear soft actuator that can generate a deformation like a smooth muscle segment. To simulate a circular contraction from a stomach with the SPA, we install multi-SPAs in a ring frame that performs contractions. Although the proposed SPA is specifically designed to mimic the smooth muscle, the ring actuator's contractions can be used for other applications such as gripping soft objects.Description
Keywords
Science & Technology, Technology, Automation & Control Systems, Engineering, Manufacturing, Engineering, Electrical & Electronic, Engineering, Mechanical, Engineering, Actuators, Robot sensing systems, Stomach, Muscles, Bellows, Strain, Soft robotics, Soft pneumatic actuator (SPA), soft ring actuator, soft robotics, viscoelastic model, FABRICATION, 40 Engineering, 4003 Biomedical Engineering, 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 0910 Manufacturing Engineering, 0913 Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering & Automation, 4007 Control engineering, mechatronics and robotics, 4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware
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IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, ISSN: 1083-4435 (Print); 1941-014X (Online), IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 26(5), 2327-2338. doi: 10.1109/TMECH.2020.3037643
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