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Research and analysis of factors affecting bending performance of multi-cavity flexible actuator

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Abstract

Due to the inherent flexibility of the material, the flexible manipulator is highly adaptable to the environment. Compared with rigid robots, it is characterized by better adaptability, better flexibility, and better human–computer interaction performance. Therefore, it has gradually become a field popularly studied in the world. In this paper, a multi-cavity flexible actuator is fabricated, which consists of two parts, a main chamber and a base. The main body chamber is made of super-elastic material, and the base is mainly made of super-elastic material. There is a strain-limiting layer in the middle of the base, and the differential effect between these two parts is used to realize the bending action of the actuator. The pneumatic driving method is adopted, and the grasping action of the flexible gripper is realized by changing the air pressure inside the chamber. The mathematical model of flexible actuator was established and simulated by Abaqus finite element software to explore the effect of the length, the width and the height of the single chamber of the actuator on its bending performance. The experimental results show that: when the air pressure is constant, (1) the height and the width of the single chamber have a great influence on the bending performance, and all show a positive correlation; (2) compared with the height and the width, the length of the single chamber has a relatively smaller effect on the bending performance, and there is a negative correlation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous referees for their many valuable and helpful comments. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the No. U1504520, U1504509 and 51806061; the Science and Technology Research program of Henan Province (182102110250, 182102110356, 142300410294, 162102210271, 172102310737, 172102310355, 182102110010, 182102110296), Key Scientific Research project of Henan Higher Education Institutions (17A220002, 17B416001); Research project of Henan Science and Technology Think Tank (HNKJZK-2019-17B, HNKJZK-2019-21B) and Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Henan Agricultural University (KJCX2018C03).

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Author notes

  1. Hui Tian, Zhihua Yuan and Xiaojuan Liu contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002, Henan, China

    Hui Tian, Huiqin Li, Zhihua Yuan, Xiaojuan Liu, Yingjie Li, Yuyan Qi & Pan Ding

  2. Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Equipment Intelligent Design and Green Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Hui Tian, Huiqin Li, Zhihua Yuan, Yingjie Li, Yuyan Qi & Pan Ding

  3. Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biomimetic Materials and Low Carbon Technology, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Hui Tian, Huiqin Li, Zhihua Yuan, Yingjie Li, Yuyan Qi & Pan Ding

  4. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 155100, China

    Yuyan Qi

  5. Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Plant Landscape Diversity and Ecological Restoration, Zhengzhou, 450044, China

    Xiaojuan Liu

  6. Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou, 450044, China

    Xiaojuan Liu

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  1. Hui Tian
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Correspondence to Pan Ding.

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Tian, H., Li, H., Yuan, Z. et al. Research and analysis of factors affecting bending performance of multi-cavity flexible actuator. J Ambient Intell Human Comput 11, 6283–6292 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-020-02074-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-020-02074-z

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