Designing systems of fiber reinforced pneumatic actuators using a pseudo-rigid body model

Sreeshankar Satheeshbabu, Girish Krishnan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Fiber Reinforced Elastomeric Enclosures (FREEs) are fundamental building blocks of pneumatic soft robots, with McKibben muscles as common examples. When a system of FREEs are arranged in a planar configuration, they undergo large bending deformations due to internal loads and moments. This paper models the bending behavior of FREEs using a modified three-spring Pseudo-Rigid Body (PRB) model, which is commonly used to capture large bending behavior of flexures. The springs of the PRB model are shown to effectively capture the axial and bending stiffness of contracting FREEs, while an internal force accounts for actuation due to internal pressurization. An optimization process is carried out to fit the PRB model parameters with the experimental response curve of different FREEs with varying length to diameter ratio and fiber angles. Unlike conventional models applied to compliant mechanisms, the model parameters are shown to depend on fluid pressure. The PRB model is used to demonstrate and analyze a pennate arrangement of contracting FREEs that exhibit variable gear ratio behavior. The pennate FREEs can serve as building blocks for the design of soft robots.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationIROS 2017 - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1201-1206
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781538626825
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 13 2017
Event2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2017 - Vancouver, Canada
Duration: Sep 24 2017Sep 28 2017

Publication series

NameIEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
Volume2017-September
ISSN (Print)2153-0858
ISSN (Electronic)2153-0866

Other

Other2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2017
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver
Period9/24/179/28/17

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Software
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Science Applications

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Designing systems of fiber reinforced pneumatic actuators using a pseudo-rigid body model'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this