Stretchable Materials for Robust Soft Actuators towards Assistive Wearable Devices.
Soft actuators made from elastomeric active materials can find widespread potential implementation in a variety of applications ranging from assistive wearable technologies targeted at biomedical rehabilitation or assistance with activities of daily living, bioinspired and biomimetic systems, to gripping and manipulating fragile objects, and adaptable locomotion. In this manuscript, we propose a novel two-component soft actuator design and design tool that produces actuators targeted towards these applications with enhanced mechanical performance and manufacturability. Our numerical models developed using the finite element method can predict the actuator behavior at large mechanical strains to allow efficient design iterations for system optimization. Based on two distinctive actuator prototypes' (linear and bending actuators) experimental results that include free displacement and blocked-forces, we have validated the efficacy of the numerical models. The presented extensive investigation of mechanical performance for soft actuators with varying geometric parameters demonstrates the practical application of the design tool, and the robustness of the actuator hardware design, towards diverse soft robotic systems for a wide set of assistive wearable technologies, including replicating the motion of several parts of the human body.
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL), Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory, EPFL-IGM-RRL, MED 11326, Station 9, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Gunjan
G
Agarwal
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL), Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory, EPFL-IGM-RRL, MED 11326, Station 9, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nicolas
N
Besuchet
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL), Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory, EPFL-IGM-RRL, MED 11326, Station 9, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Basile
B
Audergon
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL), Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory, EPFL-IGM-RRL, MED 11326, Station 9, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Jamie
J
Paik
Trends Biotechnol. 2013 May;31(5):287-94
23582470
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2013 Mar 4;52(10):2892-6
23382085
Science. 2010 Dec 24;330(6012):1759-61
21205659
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Dec 20;108(51):20400-3
22123978
Bioinspir Biomim. 2011 Jun;6(2):026007
21521905
Adv Mater. 2014 Feb 26;26(8):1200-6
24227698
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2011 Feb 18;50(8):1890-5
21328664
Soft Robot. 2015 Mar 1;2(1):7-25
27625913