| Autor: |
Sun Y; 1 NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore .; 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore ., Yap HK; 1 NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore .; 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore ., Liang X; 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore ., Guo J; 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore ., Qi P; 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore ., Ang MH Jr; 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore .; 4 Advanced Robotics Centre, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore ., Yeow CH; 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore .; 4 Advanced Robotics Centre, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore .; 5 Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore . |
| Abstrakt: |
Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs), as novel types of motion drivers for robotic devices, excel in many applications, such as rehabilitation and biomimicry, which demand compliance and softness. To further expand their scope of utilization, the SPAs should be customizable to meet the distinctive requirements of different applications. This article proposes a novel perspective on the SPA working mechanism based on stiffness distribution and then presents a versatile method called stiffness customization and patterning (SCP) for SPA body stiffness layout as a novel attempt to customize SPAs with distinctive properties. We fabricated a hybrid type of material combining unstretchable material and silicone with customizable aggregated elasticity. The tensile results showed that embedding unstretchable material directly increases the stiffness of the hybrid material sample, and our stress-strain model for SCP is able to adequately predict the elasticity of hybrid samples with specific material ratios. By applying this approach to bending-type SPAs, we are able to mitigate SPA buckling, a main failure mode of SPAs, and improve the SPA tip force by using hybrid material with globally increased stiffness. We also diversify bending modalities with different stiffness configurations in the hybrid material. SCP offers numerous ways to engineer SPAs for more applications. |
