Determination of Non-Linear Material Constants of RTV Silicone Applied to a Soft Actuator for Robotic Applications

SILASTIC P-1 Silicone, a hyper elastic material, supplied by Dow Corning® is considered for the current research of the development of a soft actuator. The uniaxial tensile testing and compression testing according to ASTM standards are conducted to find its mechanical material properties. The measured stress-strain data are then applied to three kinds of constitutive non-linear models and their respective non-linear material constants are computed by least square fit. The first order Ogden model shows the better agreement with the experimental data. The mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile strength, compressive strength, shear modulus and non-linear material constants of the selected material are finally presented which will further be used for the design and analysis of the soft actuator.

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