Slit tubes for semisoft pneumatic actuators
Author(s)
Date
2018Source Title
Advanced Materials
Print ISSN
0935-9648
Electronic ISSN
1521-4095
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
30
Issue
9
Pages
1704446-10 - 1704446-1
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This article describes a new principle for designing soft or ‘semisoft’ pneumatic actuators: SLiT (for SLit-in-Tube) actuators. Inflating an elastomeric balloon, when enclosed by an external shell (a material with higher Young's modulus) containing slits of different directions and lengths, produces a variety of motions, including bending, twisting, contraction, and elongation. The requisite pressure for actuation depends on the length of the slits, and this dependence allows sequential actuation by controlling the applied pressure. Different actuators can also be controlled using external “sliders” that act as reprogrammable “on-off” switches. A pneumatic arm and a walker constructed from SLiT actuators demonstrate their ease of fabrication and the range of motions they can achieve.
Keywords
External shellsPneumatic actuators
Pneumatic artificial muscles
Semisoft
Sequential actuation
Soft robotics