Antagonistic Pneumatic Actuator with Variable Stiffness For Soft Robotic Application

In this work we have designed, developed and demonstrated two soft elastomer actuators with variable stiffness. Each of them consists of two symmetrical pneumatic chambers (one with segments and the other with fiber reinforcement) and an inextensible layer embedded in the center. Both actuators have improved properties by providing bidirectional motion and higher resistance to external loads. The symmetrical arrangement of two chambers in each actuator allows to demonstrate the antagonistic behavior. Therefore, the proposed actuators are called Antagonistic Pneumatic Actuators.

The demonstrations described above are some of the extended work related to the published paper (link below) to validate the functionalities of the actuators such as antagonistic motion and variable stiffness.

Accepted in 2020 3rd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft).
Authors: Saravana Prashanth Murali Babu, Ali Sadeghi, Alessio Mondini, Barbara Mazzolai
Oral Presentation

Institutions: Scuola Superiore SantÁnna and Italian Institute of Technology