Abstract
A multi-material 3D printed soft actuator is presented that uses symmetrical, parallel chambers to achieve bi-directional variable stiffness. Many recent soft robotic solutions involve multi-stage fabrication, provide variable stiffness in only one direction or lack a means of reliably controlling the actuator stiffness. The use of multi-material 3D printing means complex monolithic designs can be produced without the need for further fabrication steps. We demonstrate that this allows for a high degree of repeatability between actuators and the ability to introduce different control behaviours into a single body. By independently varying the pressure in two parallel chambers, two control modes are proposed: complementary and antagonistic. We show that the actuator is able to tune its force output. The differential control significantly increases force output with controllable stiffness enabled within a safe, low-pressure range (\(\le 20\) kPa). Experimental characterisations in angular range, repeatability between printed models, hysteresis, absolute maximum force, and beam stiffness are presented. The proposed design demonstrated a maximum bending angle of 102.6\(^\circ \), maximum output force 2.17N, and maximum beam stiffness 0.96mN m\(^2\).
We gratefully acknowledge support by EPSRC Programme Grant ‘From Sensing to Collaboration’ (EP/V000748/1).
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Shorthose, O., He, L., Albini, A., Maiolino, P. (2021). Design of a Multimaterial 3D-Printed Soft Actuator with Bi-directional Variable Stiffness. In: Fox, C., Gao, J., Ghalamzan Esfahani, A., Saaj, M., Hanheide, M., Parsons, S. (eds) Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. TAROS 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13054. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89177-0_25
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