Modelling of a Soft Actuator for a Planar Manipulator Table

In this paper, the deformation details of a soft actuator of a soft surface manipulator was investigated. The relation between the pressure of the inflation and the object displacement was established. Finite Element Analysis was used to investigate the working principle of single soft actuator. The simulation results show how the soft actuators effect the movement of the object on the surface. The relation between inflation pressure and object displacement was established by applying different pressure to the Finite Element model. The soft surface manipulator was considered as a servo mechanism acting on the object. The kinematic model of the object was established to facilitate the development of trajectory tracking algorithm in the future work.