Design, characterization, and manufacturing of circular bellows pneumatic soft actuator

Abstract

In the present study, the performance of silicone rubber-based bellows-structured pneumatic actuator was analyzed in terms of output bending motion and bending force with relation to input pressure. To perform the analysis, the structural parameters of length, diameter, and wall thickness were characterized and tested with two different silicone materials. The simulation analysis revealed that the stiffness of the silicone materials selected for the bellows actuator imposes strong effects on its bending motion and pneumatic input pressure requirement. Furthermore, the characterization of material-S-based bellows actuator having lengths 84, 126, and 168 mm, with a maximum diameter and a wall thickness of 14 and 1.4 mm, respectively, resulted in maximum output bending angles of 142.4°, 137.5°, and 117° at minimum pneumatic input pressures of 85.5, 66.5, and 85.5 kPa, respectively. Hence, the bellows actuator that simulated in a maximum bending angle of 142.4° was fabricated for validation and experimentally resulted in an average bending force of 9 N.