Design and Modeling of Fabric-Shelled Pneumatic Bending Soft Actuators

In recent years, the use of fabric to manufacture and integrate soft actuators and sensors into wearable robots elucidates the benefits of soft robotic technology, closing the gap between humans and machines. However, many limitations in terms of ease of manufacturing, customization, modeling, output force and control remain unsolved and reduce the number of practical applications of fabric-based soft robotic systems. To address these limitations, we propose the use of laser-cut fabric shells laminated onto thermoplastic polyurethane as a pneumatic bending soft actuator. In this letter the design, fabrication, modeling, and control of a fabric shelled bending actuator is presented. Our experiments suggest that the fabric-shelled actuators are highly tunable and usable for high force applications. Moreover, the finite element model developed can predict the behavior of different fabric shelled actuator designs. Finally, we show how precise control of the actuators can be achieved by the implementation of a feedback curvature control system.