Robotic joints are fundamental components in artificial graspers and manipulators, and they are designed to achieve high dexterity to carry out various tasks. Traditional robotic hands are often driven by rigid joints, such as tendons and electric motors, resulting in bulky and complex designs. Soft robotics, composed of flexible and compliant materials, offers promising solutions to mimic the human hands and handle delicate objects safely. In this article, we propose a simple yet effective V-shape pneumatic torsional actuator (V-PTA) as the building blocks of soft grasper and manipulators. The proposed actuator is capable of producing large angular changes and twisting torque, responding fast to pneumatic changes, and scaling to appropriate dimensions easily. Because the design is generic and modular in nature, these lightweight actuators could also be assembled to form a variety of patterns of structures to suit the needs of individual tasks. We further fabricated robotic graspers and manipulators based on multiple V-PTA and demonstrated that our design could offer solutions to execute daily laboratory operations that interact with small and irregular components. Experimental data confirmed that the V-PTA building block structure could potentially pave the path forward for miniature robotic automation in laboratory or industrial settings.

中文翻译：

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V 型气动扭转执行器：软抓取器和机械手的构建模块

机器人关节是人工抓取器和机械手的基本组成部分，它们旨在实现高灵活性以执行各种任务。传统的机械手通常由刚性关节驱动，例如肌腱和电动机，导致设计庞大而复杂。由柔性和柔顺材料组成的软机器人技术提供了有前途的解决方案，可以模仿人的手并安全地处理精致的物体。在本文中，我们提出了一种简单而有效的 V 形气动扭转致动器 (V-PTA) 作为软抓取器和机械手的构建块。所提出的致动器能够产生大的角度变化和扭转扭矩，快速响应气动变化，并轻松缩放到适当的尺寸。因为设计本质上是通用和模块化的，这些轻型执行器也可以组装成各种结构模式，以满足个别任务的需要。我们进一步制造了基于多个 V-PTA 的机器人抓取器和操纵器，并证明我们的设计可以提供解决方案来执行与小型和不规则组件交互的日常实验室操作。实验数据证实，V-PTA 构建块结构可能为实验室或工业环境中的微型机器人自动化铺平道路。我们进一步制造了基于多个 V-PTA 的机器人抓取器和操纵器，并证明我们的设计可以提供解决方案来执行与小型和不规则组件交互的日常实验室操作。实验数据证实，V-PTA 构建块结构可能为实验室或工业环境中的微型机器人自动化铺平道路。我们进一步制造了基于多个 V-PTA 的机器人抓取器和操纵器，并证明我们的设计可以提供解决方案来执行与小型和不规则组件交互的日常实验室操作。实验数据证实，V-PTA 构建块结构可能为实验室或工业环境中的微型机器人自动化铺平道路。