Analysis of Bending Abilities of Soft Pneumatic Actuator

Pneumatic gripper uses compressed air to operate its actuators (fingers). Unlike the conventional metallic gripper, soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) can be used for relocating fragile objects. An added advantage for this gripper is that the pressure exerted on the object can be varied by changing the dimensions of the air chambers and also by number of chambers. SPAs have many benefits over the conventional robots in military and medical fields because of their compliance nature and are easily produced using 3D printing process. In the paper, SPA is proposed to perform pick and place task. A design was developed for the actuators which is convenient for gripping any fragile objects. Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) is used for 3D printing of the actuators. The actuator model behaves differently as the parameters such as its chamber height and number of chambers change. A detailed FEM model of the actuator is drafted for different pressure inputs using ABAQUS CAE software, and safe loading pressure range is found.