Design and analysis of bending motion in single and dual chamber bellows structured soft actuators

Abstract

As one of the most important characteristics of soft actuators, bending motion has been widely used in the field of soft robotics to perform different manipulation and tasks. In this study, we design silicone rubber material based soft actuators consisting of single and dual chambers, and a bellows structure. Several models of bellows soft actuators were designed, simulated and analyzed using finite element analysis (FEA) software MARC®, in order to understand the characteristics of bellows structured soft actuator with single and dual chambers and to optimize the performance of bending motion of bellows soft actuators. The results confirm that the bellows structured pneumatic soft actuator model 4 of single chamber and model 5 of dual chamber produces the best bending motion and bending angles.