Design and validation of a pneumatic bending actuator

In this paper, aiming at the problems of high cost, low output quality and complex manufacturing process of the existing pneumatic bending actuator, a pneumatic bending actuator which can be used for flexible manipulator is designed based on the structure of traditional McKibben pneumatic artificial muscle. The actuator limits its unilateral axial displacement by an elastic support to meet the bending requirements of the soft manipulator, and uses a flexible seal at the end. At the same time, the static model of the actuator is established based on the energy method, and the static characteristics are analyzed in Matlab. The statics characteristic test bench of the bent actuator was set up, and the statics model was verified experimentally with average errors of 4.5% and 9.7%, respectively. The results show that the bent actuator designed in this paper meets the requirements of design indicators, and lays a good foundation for the subsequent design of soft manipulator to meet the needs of grabbing daily necessities.