A Biomimetic Four-Chamber Soft Actuator for Human-like Dexterous Manipulation with Spatial Bending and Twisting Capabilities

To address the challenge that existing soft grippers have difficulty achieving fine manipulation comparable to the human finger’s “circular twisting” motion, this paper proposes a four-chamber spatial bending soft actuator based on the principle of virtual work. The actuator incorporates an internal cross-shaped restricting layer that divides its cross-section into four independent pneumatic chambers. Through independent regulation of the pressure in each chamber, continuous and controllable bending in arbitrary spatial directions is achieved, replicating the bending and abduction/adduction degrees of freedom (DoFs) of a human finger and their composite motions on a single actuator. Based on the Yeoh hyperelastic constitutive model and the principle of virtual work, a static deformation model of the actuator is established. By introducing an engineering assumption of “deformation vector superposition” and correction coefficients fitted from experimental data, high-precision prediction from multi-chamber pressure input to spatial bending output is realized. Furthermore, a three-finger soft gripper is constructed based on this actuator, successfully demonstrating fingertip pinching and enveloping grasping. Through open-loop programmed control, the fine “circular twisting” manipulation is demonstrated (exemplified by light bulb installation). This study provides an effective structural design and modeling method for soft actuators to achieve decoupled multi-DoF motion control, showcasing their application potential in adaptability and dexterous manipulation.