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Bending Angle Effect of the Cross-Section Ratio for a Soft Pneumatic Actuator

Jutamanee Auysakul, Nitipan Vittayaphadung, Sarawut Gonsrang, and Pruittikorn Smithmaitrie
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90112, Thailand

Abstract—A soft pneumatic actuator is a soft robotics part that significantly increases ability of a robotic arm to grasp an object in the automatic production line. To grip an object of various sizes and shapes, the bending angle of the actuator is a parameter that affects the grasping area and positioning of a robotic arm while applying air pressure. In this study, the actuator models with small and large cross-section ratios are compared by simulation using the finite element method. The simulation results show that increasing of the model cross-section ratio provides the wider bending angle than the reduced cross-section ratio model or the basic configuration model at the same input pressure. The proposed model still maintains the air surface area inside the actuator. Furthermore, it was found that the reduced cross-section ratio model has the most significant influence on the bending angle than the other models. Thus, the model comparison in term of the cross-section ratio is helpful to design the most effective gripper.

Index Terms—soft pneumatic actuator, soft robotic gripper, mathematical modeling, soft robotics

Cite: Jutamanee Auysakul, Nitipan Vittayaphadung, Sarawut Gonsrang, and Pruittikorn Smithmaitrie, "Bending Angle Effect of the Cross-Section Ratio for a Soft Pneumatic Actuator" International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 366-370, March 2020. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.9.3.366-370

Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.