New soft robotic actuators that can be reduced to one centimeter in size
Researchers at Istituto italiano di Tecnologia’s Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory have developed a new soft robotic actuator based on pleats that can be used to a range of sizes, even down to 1 centimeter. The group described the technology behind its new actuator in a paper published by Science Robotics. They also tested it to see how it performed under different conditions.

The engineers working on soft robots have been constrained in the past by pneumatic artificial muscles actuators that are only effective at certain sizes due to their large number of parts. Researchers have developed a new feature for such actuators, which requires fewer components, and results in a smaller device.

The pneumatic actuators simulate muscle movement by pumping air into and out of the small sacs. They can be bent because they’re made of resin. Artificial muscles can be used to grip and twist when combined with other parts such as hands. The researchers added pleats to the sacs in order to reduce the complexity of the parts. The researchers reduced the size of the air sacs by adding pleats. Researchers also used a more flexible resin than is typically used for such work.

Source:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-soft-robotic-actuator-scaled-centimeter.html