A novel inflatable actuator for inflatable robotic arms

J.M.A. Palacio (1) , A. Riwan (2) , N. Mechbal (1) , E. Monteiro (1) , S. Voisembert (3)

1 PIMM - Laboratoire Procédés et Ingénierie en Mécanique et Matériaux
2 DIASI - Département Intelligence Ambiante et Systèmes Interactifs
3 Warein SAS

Inflatable manipulators open new trends in robotic applications. In this paper, a new inflatable actuator to articulate a long-range inflatable robotic arm, is presented. Completely made of high strength fabric, its low mass leads to large force-weight ratios and a stroke almost equal to twice its overall length. The operation principle, as well as the relations among the displacement, the pressure and force, are described in this paper. The analysis is under validation through a finite elements simulation and a test on a prototype.

Keywords: Actuators; Finite element method; Manipulators; Models; Robotic arms; Robotics; Experimental identification; Finite elements analysis; Finite elements simulation; High-strength fabric; Low mass; Robotic applications; Weight ratios; Intelligent mechatronics

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]

J.M.A. Palacio, A. Riwan, N. Mechbal, E. Monteiro, S. Voisembert. A novel inflatable actuator for inflatable robotic arms. 2017 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), Jul 2017, Munich, Germany. pp.88-93, ⟨10.1109/AIM.2017.8014000⟩. ⟨cea-01840414⟩