Nested Dual-Chamber Origami (NDO) Actuator with Pressure Compounding and Enhanced Payload
摘要
Soft robots hold interaction compliance and safety over rigid-body robots for promising adaptation and unique motion modes in unstructured environments, but weak payload due to the inherent compliance limits the task execution. Enhancing the payload for the classic pneumatic soft actuator remains a challenge, with the physical limitation of negative pressure supply less than 1 atm and buckling of thin-walled body. Previous works focused more on single-chamber structural promotion, such as stacking, directional constraint, and novel configuration design, while they could not completely avoid the abovementioned physical limitation. In this work, we proposed the nested dual-chamber origami actuator by integrating the Yoshimura origami with pleated origami to generate bidirectional motion via compounding of positive and negative pressure actuation within different chambers. Through the all-time intervention of the positive pressure, the proposed actuator enables enhancing bidirectional payload, especially in contraction. The design and fabrication are analyzed to prototype, and the statics models are derived to reveal the relationship between the pressure compounding and output force with the experimental validation. The experimental results show that the nested actuator can initially improve by 12.5% payload by the structural assembly while achieving even 162% payload enhancement in the contraction process through dual-chamber pneumatic compounding, compared to the common single-chamber Yoshimura actuator without diminishing the payload performance in the elongation direction at the same time. This nested design offers a novel approach to enhancing payload of soft actuators and has the potential to be further expanded into other motion forms.