Reconfigurable Inflated Soft Arms

Inflatable structures have attracted considerable research attention in many fields owing to their numerous advantages, such as being light and able to engage in interactions safely. However, in most cases, the inflatable structure can only have one stable configuration, which is undesirable for robotic arms. This study proposes a novel inflatable structure that can be easily reconfigured into multiple stable configurations, even with single-body inflation. In the proposed mechanism, the structure length can be freely adjusted, and its respective joints can be set in the desired directions to facilitate the reconfiguration of its pose. An additional advantage of the proposed mechanism is that it can withstand external forces as well as its own weight. This study analyzes and experimentally validates the shape locking and load-carrying properties of the proposed mechanism. Further, the fabrication process and design guidelines for the proposed mechanism are presented. Through a suitable demonstration, the proposed mechanism is shown to exhibit multiple stable configurations and lock its poses.