Strategies to Control Performance of 3D-Printed, Cable-Driven Soft Polymer Actuators: From Simple Architectures to Gripper Prototype
Name
polymers-10-00846.pdf
Size
3.57 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3767932a6e84e4ebce71673edd49770d
Author(s)
Slesarenko, Viacheslav
Galich, Pavel I.
Vladimirsky, Dmitry
Rudykh, Stephan
Galich, Pavel
Engelkemier, Seiji H.
Kleiner, Gregory A
Date Issued
August 2018
Journal
Polymers
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Slesarenko, Viacheslav, Seiji Engelkemier, Pavel I. Galich, Dmitry Vladimirsky, Gregory Klein and Stephan Rudykh. "Strategies to Control Performance of 3D-Printed, Cable-Driven Soft Polymer Actuators: From Simple Architectures to Gripper Prototype." Polymers 2018, 10, 846.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The following is a study of the performance of soft cable-driven polymer actuators produced by multimaterial 3D printing. We demonstrate that the mechanical response of the polymer actuator with an embedded cable can be flexibly tuned through the targeted selection of actuator architecture. Various strategies, such as the addition of discrete or periodic stiff inserts, the sectioning of the actuator, or the shifting of the cable channel are employed to demonstrate ways to achieve more controllable deformed shape during weight lifting or reduce the required actuation force. To illustrate these concepts, we design and manufacture a prototype of the soft polymer gripper, which is capable of manipulating small, delicate objects. The explored strategies can be utilized in other types of soft actuators, employing, for instance, actuation by means of electroactive polymers.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10080846
