A Novel Dual-Drive Soft Pneumatic Actuator with the Improved Output Force

This paper presents a novel dual-drive soft pneumatic network actuator consisting of a series of chambers made of elastomeric material, an inextensible bottom layer (paper), the rigid parts, the tendon, and coffee granular cavity. The soft actuator is the most important part when establishing soft robotic systems and can be used to make the soft gripper. The fabrication process of the soft actuator is presented. The proposed actuator has the design of the decreasing chamber height, which is beneficial to improving the output force and the contact area with the object. The proposed actuator has a cavity filled with coffee granular in the bottom, which improves the contact area and grasping stability. The tendon-pneumatic dual-drive and rigid parts between the adjacent chambers increase the force of the soft actuator. The bending angle model of the soft actuator is established briefly based on the elongation of the spacing layer and the contact layer of the soft actuator. The experiments prove that the proposed actuator has the significant improved output force.