Traditional actuators, such as motors as well as hydraulic or pneumatic artificial muscles, demonstrate excessive noise, a heavy weight, and a large size, which limit their practical application in many areas. Therefore, for many decades, scientists have worked to develop new types of silent, small, and light actuators. In this article, a novel soft actuator (actuator₃) with a high load-to-weight ratio from silicone and a low-boiling liquid (ethanol: actuator_3E or water: actuator_3W) is presented and is compared with two actuators (actuator₁ and actuator₂) fabricated according to a method described in the literature. Compared with actuator₁ and actuator₂, actuator₃ shows a larger volume expansion, output force, and load-to-weight ratio when heated. Owing to the weaker stability and repeatability of actuator_3E, many different kinds of applications based on actuator_3W are proposed, such as robotic hands and underwater rolling robots with color variations. The experimental results demonstrate that the method proposed in this article may be a viable alternative for fabricating low-cost soft actuators with high load-to-weight ratios that can be useful for future applications of soft robots.

中文翻译：

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具有高负载重量比的低成本硅胶和水基软执行器的设计和制造

传统的执行器，如电机以及液压或气动人造肌肉，噪声大、重量重、体积大，限制了其在许多领域的实际应用。因此，几十年来，科学家们一直致力于开发新型静音、小型和轻型执行器。在本文中，介绍了一种新型软执行器（执行器₃），该执行器由硅胶和低沸点液体（乙醇：执行器_3E或水：执行器_3W）制成，具有高负载重量比，并与两个执行器（执行器_图1和致动器₂ )根据文献中描述的方法制造。与执行器₁和执行器_2相比，致动器₃在加热时显示出更大的体积膨胀、输出力和负载重量比。由于致动器_3E的稳定性和可重复性较弱，因此提出了许多基于致动器_3W的不同应用，例如机器人手和具有颜色变化的水下滚动机器人。实验结果表明，本文提出的方法可能是制造具有高负载重量比的低成本软执行器的可行替代方案，可用于软机器人的未来应用。