Multi-DoF Soft Robotic Actuators Based on Spring Reinforce and Particle Jamming

Soft robots have a wide rang of applications due to their compliance, flexibility and low fabrication cost. Compare to rigid robots, soft robots are more safe for human. In this work, we design various multi-DoF actuators with spring reinforce and particle jamming, and two fabrication methods are proposed to make them. Each type of actuator is tested to evaluate the mechanical properties by experiments. Experimental results show that both spring and particle jamming have effect on the stiffness. Besides, Spring reinforced actuator (SRA) increases the maximum allowable inflation pressure, output bending force and gives a good linear relationship of bending. We also integrate spring and particles to fabricate a hybrid actuator whose behaviors are explored by experiments. Finally, we create a snake-like robotic manipulator assembled with two actuators and show its bending motion. Results show that the manipulator is able to achieve several bending shapes steadily and large range of motion.