Structural optimization and parameter investigation of trapezoidal shape soft pneumatic actuator

Abstract This study investigates the effects of actuator design parameters on the performance of developed trapezoidal shaped soft pneumatic actuator, optimizes its geometric structure using the finite element method and validates its performance experimentally. To optimize the soft pneumatic actuator, the effects of structural parameters such as wall thickness, gap between the adjacent chambers, passive layer thickness, width of inside chamber and the bending angle of the actuator were evaluated. Finite Element Analysis is used to determine the displacement variation of actuator with different levels of applied pressures. A Global Analysis of Variance was conducted to determine the influence of variables affecting the displacements of soft pneumatic actuator was determined. The ANOVA results, a geometric actuator with a wall thickness of 1.5 mm, gap between chambers of 4 mm, passive layer thickness of 2 mm and the width of inside chamber of 4 mm is recommended for the actuator to be achieve maximum bending angle. The proposed actuator model can be used to select the suitable actuator for grasping soft objects without deformation. In addition, experiment was conducted to correlate the results with finite element analysis data.