TY - JOUR
T1 - Micro Elastic Pouch Motors
T2 - Elastically Deformable and Miniaturized Soft Actuators Using Liquid-to-Gas Phase Change
AU - Hirai, Seiya
AU - Nagatomo, Tatsuho
AU - Hiraki, Takefumi
AU - Ishizuka, Hiroki
AU - Kawahara, Yoshihiro
AU - Miki, Norihisa
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received October 23, 2020; accepted January 9, 2021. Date of publication April 22, 2021; date of current version May 10, 2021. This letter was recommended for publication by Associate Editor H. Rodrigue and Editor C. Laschi upon evaluation of the reviewers’ comments. This work was supported by JST ERATO Grant JPMJER1501, JST CREST Grants JPMJCR19A2, and JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP19J00101, JP20H02121 and JP20K19847. (Corresponding author: Takefumi Hiraki.) Seiya Hirai, Tatsuho Nagatomo, and Norihisa Miki are with the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Keio University, Kanagawa 223-8522, Japan (e-mail: seiya_hirai@keio.jp; tatsuho19950307@keio.jp; miki@mech. keio.ac.jp).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - In the present study, we propose a largely deformable and miniaturized soft actuator that is made by an elastic rubber bladder (called a pouch) with a low-boiling-point liquid. When the temperature of the low-boiling-point liquid reaches 34 - C, the liquid inside the pouch evaporates, and the whole structure inflates. Thanks to the proposed fabrication method, we can make a miniaturized pouch of approximately 5 mm in diameter with a thin rubber membrane, and the pouch can inflate to a volume of 86 times or more compared to its initial volume and can generate approximately 20 N at maximum. We calculated the deformation model and developed the fabrication process through investigation of the thickness and the inflation volume of the pouch with respect to the process parameters. We then experimentally characterized the actuator with respect to the generated force, time response, and repeatability of the inflation. We believe that micro elastic pouch motors will contribute to soft robotic systems as a new component as a result of having unique characteristics, such as millimeter size and large deformability.
AB - In the present study, we propose a largely deformable and miniaturized soft actuator that is made by an elastic rubber bladder (called a pouch) with a low-boiling-point liquid. When the temperature of the low-boiling-point liquid reaches 34 - C, the liquid inside the pouch evaporates, and the whole structure inflates. Thanks to the proposed fabrication method, we can make a miniaturized pouch of approximately 5 mm in diameter with a thin rubber membrane, and the pouch can inflate to a volume of 86 times or more compared to its initial volume and can generate approximately 20 N at maximum. We calculated the deformation model and developed the fabrication process through investigation of the thickness and the inflation volume of the pouch with respect to the process parameters. We then experimentally characterized the actuator with respect to the generated force, time response, and repeatability of the inflation. We believe that micro elastic pouch motors will contribute to soft robotic systems as a new component as a result of having unique characteristics, such as millimeter size and large deformability.
KW - Soft sensors and actuators
KW - hydraulic/pneumatic actuators
KW - soft robot materials and design
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U2 - 10.1109/LRA.2021.3075102
DO - 10.1109/LRA.2021.3075102
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104665629
SN - 2377-3766
VL - 6
SP - 5373
EP - 5380
JO - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
JF - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
IS - 3
M1 - 9411681
ER -