A soft pneumatic bistable reinforced actuator bioinspired by Venus Flytrap with enhanced grasping capability

Area of Science:

• Soft robotics
• Materials science
• Mechanical engineering

Background:

• Soft actuators offer compliance and safety but suffer from low force and load capacity.
• Prestored elastic energy is a key strategy to enhance the performance of soft actuators.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a soft pneumatic bistable reinforced actuator (SPBRA) that leverages stored elastic energy for improved performance.
• To investigate the bistable mechanism inspired by the Venus Flytrap for enhanced actuator capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Designed a novel actuator with two separated 3D-printed chambers attached to a prestressed steel shell for bistability.
• Derived and experimentally validated the pressure triggering mechanism for state transition.
• Conducted comparative experiments against a standard dual-chamber actuator.

Main Results:

• The SPBRA demonstrated significantly improved block tip force, load capacity, and stiffness compared to conventional designs.
• Achieved superior actuation speed and bending angle under identical input pressures.
• Successfully developed and demonstrated a two-finger gripper utilizing the SPBRA for object manipulation.

Conclusions:

• The proposed soft pneumatic bistable reinforced actuator effectively utilizes prestored elastic energy to overcome limitations of traditional soft actuators.
• The Venus Flytrap-inspired bistable mechanism provides a robust platform for developing high-performance soft robotic components.
• This actuator design shows significant promise for advancing applications in soft robotics, particularly in grasping and manipulation tasks.