Design of Embedded Structure Variable Stiffness Pneumatic Actuator

Soft pneumatic actuator, which is actuated by pneumatic pressure, is the most widely used actuator in the field of soft robotics. During the application of the pneumatic actuator, the chambers inside the actuator expand like balloons. It causes nonlinear problems and gives difficulties in modeling of actuator. A design method of variable stiffness pneumatic actuator is proposed in this paper. The embedded structure is adopted by the actuator. The finite element method (FEM) is used for analyzing the effect of the proposed soft pneumatic actuator. The results show that the proposed design of the pneumatic actuator works well on restraining the balloon problems when the actuator bends.