Research and analysis of factors affecting bending performance of multi-cavity flexible actuator

Due to the inherent flexibility of the material, the flexible manipulator is highly adaptable to the environment. Compared with rigid robots, it is characterized by better adaptability, better flexibility, and better human–computer interaction performance. Therefore, it has gradually become a field popularly studied in the world. In this paper, a multi-cavity flexible actuator is fabricated, which consists of two parts, a main chamber and a base. The main body chamber is made of super-elastic material, and the base is mainly made of super-elastic material. There is a strain-limiting layer in the middle of the base, and the differential effect between these two parts is used to realize the bending action of the actuator. The pneumatic driving method is adopted, and the grasping action of the flexible gripper is realized by changing the air pressure inside the chamber. The mathematical model of flexible actuator was established and simulated by Abaqus finite element software to explore the effect of the length, the width and the height of the single chamber of the actuator on its bending performance. The experimental results show that: when the air pressure is constant, (1) the height and the width of the single chamber have a great influence on the bending performance, and all show a positive correlation; (2) compared with the height and the width, the length of the single chamber has a relatively smaller effect on the bending performance, and there is a negative correlation.