Design Optimization of Soft Fabric Pneumatic Actuators

Fabric‐based soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) offer exceptional power‐to‐weight ratios and inherent compliance, making them very attractive in the soft robotics community and a critical component in the development of next‐generation intelligent artificial systems. Existing SPA research predominantly focuses on elastomeric actuators, and the resulting design principles and performance insights are not directly transferable to fabric‐based actuator architectures. This study proposes a systematic optimization framework for multi‐chamber elongating and bending fabric‐based SPAs, based on validated finite element models and transferable objective functions and constraints. A preliminary analysis reduces the design‐space dimensionality and identifies exploratory solutions, while a subsequent refined optimization employs statistically validated surrogate models to minimize pneumatic energy consumption under force–displacement or torque–rotation constraints. The resulting optimal designs are validated through both numerical simulations and experimental testing. The proposed framework offers a scalable and reproducible methodology that enables researchers to balance optimization fidelity and computational cost, supporting both rapid design exploration and high‐accuracy actuator optimization.