Behavior Analysis of Soft Pneumatic Actuator Gripper by using Image Processing Technology

With the development of advance materials, soft robotics is being widely applied in various industrial manufacturing chains. One of the prominent applications of soft robotics is soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) gripper which is an essential part in the food industry due to their advantages like high compliance and human-friendly interaction. This study presents a systematic approach to analyze a SPA gripper used in the food industry. The behaviors of SPA gripper are analyzed by using image processing technology. Firstly, the structural geometry of soft gripper model controlled by pneumatic actuators is suggested. Moreover, the geometrical parameters like chamber thickness of the soft gripper is optimized by the combination of finite element method (FEM) modeling and experiment. The working characteristics of the chosen concept based on the chamber parameter of this soft SPA gripper are analyzed.