Kinematic Modelling and Experimental Validation of a Foldable Pneumatic Soft Module
摘要
If the space manipulator can be folded into a small volume with a light weight before launch, it will definitely have a much greater prospect in space missions. Moreover, this kind of foldable pneumatic manipulator will also have a wide application in future industrial fields, physical human-robot interactions, and many other fields. In confined spaces, where traditional rigid equipment cannot work, the pneumatic soft manipulator shows competent performance. In this chapter, a pneumatic soft manipulator with the foldability to switch between a contraction state and an expanded state is designed and developed. In Sect. 6.1, the design schematic of the soft manipulator is proposed, and the kinematic model of one foldable pneumatic module is developed. In Sect. 6.2, the numerical results, including the shape deformation and the workspace of the soft manipulator, are obtained and analyzed. In Sect. 6.3, the experimental system is designed and developed. The repeatability of the pneumatic module and the prediction accuracy of our proposed model are tested and validated. Finally, the conclusions are given in Sect. 6.4.