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Actuators
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Advanced Technologies in Soft Pneumatic Actuators
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Advanced Technologies in Soft Pneumatic Actuators

A special issue of Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825). This special issue belongs to the section "Actuator Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2025 | Viewed by 3781

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alessio Merola

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Systems and Control Engineering, Università degli studi Magna Graecia di Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
Interests: biomechatronics; human-robot interaction control; soft robotics; biomimetic actuators; nonlinear systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the Special Issue “Advanced Technologies in Soft Pneumatic Actuators” to be published in Actuators.

Newly introduced design approaches, which integrate pneumatic actuation technologies with the adoption of soft hyper-elastic materials and novel processes of fabrication of soft actuators, pave the way for more efficient implementations of control and automation systems in a large range of industrial and automation processes and bio-robotic applications.

A common feature of all those important applications that can benefit from the adoption of a soft pneumatic actuation is the improved control performance, e.g., thanks to the low weight-to-power ratio and intrinsic safety of the actuators and soft robots interacting with a human subject, in collaborative robotics as well as in assistive and rehabilitation robotics mediated by soft wearable exoskeletons.

The Special Issue covers both theoretical and experimental challenges involved in the design, realization, and control of pneumatic soft actuators for all relevant applications of robotics and automation, control engineering, and healthcare and biomedical engineering.

Dr. Alessio Merola
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pneumatic actuation
  • pneumatic control systems
  • fluidic actuators
  • soft robotics
  • compliant actuators

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 6508 KiB  
Article
Design and Characterisation of a 3D-Printed Pneumatic Rotary Actuator Exploiting Enhanced Elastic Properties of Auxetic Metamaterials
by Francesca Federica Donadio, Donatella Dragone, Anna Procopio, Francesco Amato, Carlo Cosentino and Alessio Merola
Actuators 2024, 13(9), 329; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13090329 - 30 Aug 2024
Viewed by 734
Abstract
This paper describes the design and characterisation of a novel hybrid pneumatic rotational actuator that aims to overcome the limitations of both rigid and soft actuators while combining their advantages; indeed, the designed actuator consists of a soft air chamber having an auxetic [...] Read more.
This paper describes the design and characterisation of a novel hybrid pneumatic rotational actuator that aims to overcome the limitations of both rigid and soft actuators while combining their advantages; indeed, the designed actuator consists of a soft air chamber having an auxetic structure constrained between two rigid frames connected by a soft hinge joint inspired by the musculoskeletal structure of a lobster leg. The main goal is to integrate the advantages of soft actuation, such as inherent compliance and safe human–robot interaction, with those of rigid components, i.e., the robustness and structural stability limiting the ineffective expansion of the soft counterpart of the actuator. The air chamber and its auxetic structure are capable of leveraging the hyper-elastic properties of the soft fabrication material, thereby optimising the response and extending the operational range of the rotational actuator. Each component of the hybrid actuator is fabricated using a 3D-printing method based on Fused Deposition Modeling technology; the soft components are made of thermoplastic polyurethane, and the rigid components are made of polylactic acid. The design phases were followed by some experimental tests to characterise the hybrid actuation by reproducing the typical operating conditions of the actuator itself. In particular, the actuator response in unconstrained expansion and isometric and isobaric conditions has been evaluated. The experimental results show linearity, good repeatability, and sensitivity of the actuator response vs. pneumatic pressure input, other than a small percentage hysteresis, which is ten times less than that observed in commercial soft pneumatic actuators. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Soft Pneumatic Actuators)
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18 pages, 3972 KiB  
Article
A Piecewise Particle Swarm Optimisation Modelling Method for Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Actuators
by Dexter Felix Brown and Sheng Quan Xie
Actuators 2024, 13(8), 286; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13080286 - 29 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 737
Abstract
Pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) possess compliant properties desirable for certain applications such as prosthetics and robotic structures. However, this compliance along with their inherent nonlinear dynamics make them difficult to accurately model and as such accurately control under certain control architectures. Common approaches [...] Read more.
Pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) possess compliant properties desirable for certain applications such as prosthetics and robotic structures. However, this compliance along with their inherent nonlinear dynamics make them difficult to accurately model and as such accurately control under certain control architectures. Common approaches to this problem include measuring the actuator’s physical properties and approximating a model based on these parameters or using deep learning methods to train a model with the actuator’s behaviours. This paper introduces an optimisation-based modelling approach based on a particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm using a mass–spring–damper approximation for the PAM, as well as a piecewise modelling method that accounts for nonlinear dynamics. The use of optimisation to estimate model parameters removes the need to measure physical properties, and the three-element approximation allows for fast model generation with low computational complexity and training data requirements. Through multiple tests comparing model behaviour with real PAM motion, the accuracy of these models is confirmed to be promising for future work. Dynamic nonlinearities are properly accounted for using the piecewise modelling method, including both hysteresis and disproportionate input/output relationship across the stroke length of the actuator. Compared with other PAM modelling techniques, this method has improved generation time, lower computational load requirements, and complexity and can be applied to actuators for which the phenomenological mass–spring–damper model is a good approximation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Soft Pneumatic Actuators)
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12 pages, 5648 KiB  
Article
Development and Integration of Carbon–Polydimethylsiloxane Sensors for Motion Sensing in Soft Pneumatic Actuators
by Ke Ma, Sihuan Wu, Yuquan Zheng, Maosen Shao, Jie Zhang, Jianing Wu and Jinxiu Zhang
Actuators 2024, 13(8), 285; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13080285 - 28 Jul 2024
Viewed by 837
Abstract
Drawing inspiration from the intricate soft structures found in nature, soft actuators possess the ability to incrementally execute complex tasks and adapt to dynamic and interactive environments. In particular, the integration of sensor data feedback allows actuators to respond to environmental stimuli with [...] Read more.
Drawing inspiration from the intricate soft structures found in nature, soft actuators possess the ability to incrementally execute complex tasks and adapt to dynamic and interactive environments. In particular, the integration of sensor data feedback allows actuators to respond to environmental stimuli with heightened intelligence. However, conventional rigid sensors are constrained by their inherent lack of flexibility. The current manufacturing processes for flexible sensors are complex and fail to align with the inherent simplicity of soft actuators. In this study, to facilitate the straightforward and consistent sensing of soft pneumatic actuators, carbon–polydimethylsiloxane (CPDMS) materials were employed, utilizing 3D printing and laser-cutting techniques to fabricate a flexible sensor with ease. The preparation of standard tensile specimens verified that the sensor exhibits a fatigue life extending to several hundred cycles and determined its gauge factor to be −3.2. Experimental results indicate that the sensor is suitable for application in soft pneumatic actuators. Additionally, a printed circuit board (PCB) was fabricated and the piecewise constant curvature (PCC) kinematic method was utilized to enable real-time pose estimation of the soft pneumatic actuator. Compared with computer vision methods, the pose estimation error obtained by the sensing method is as low as 4.26%. This work demonstrates that this easily fabricated sensor can deliver real-time pose feedback for flexible pneumatic actuators, thereby expanding the potential application scenarios for soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Soft Pneumatic Actuators)
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15 pages, 9253 KiB  
Article
Double Air Chambers Pneumatic Artificial Muscle and Non-Hysteresis Position Control
by Naoki Saito, Toshiyuki Satoh and Norihiko Saga
Actuators 2024, 13(8), 282; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13080282 - 26 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 758
Abstract
In this paper, we propose a double air chambers artificial muscle to eliminate the hysteresis in the extension and contraction movement of pneumatic artificial muscles. In this paper, the basic structure of the double air chambers artificial muscle is a rubberless artificial muscle [...] Read more.
In this paper, we propose a double air chambers artificial muscle to eliminate the hysteresis in the extension and contraction movement of pneumatic artificial muscles. In this paper, the basic structure of the double air chambers artificial muscle is a rubberless artificial muscle with a particularly large hysteresis loop. The double air chambers artificial muscle aims to eliminate hysteresis by directly pressurizing the inside and outside of the air chamber and actively deforming the air chamber. The hysteresis is reduced by the pressure outside of the air chamber (external pressure). Since the appropriate external pressure varies depending on the contraction force and amount of contraction, we proposed a method to regulate the appropriate external pressure by feedback control. The experimental results show that hysteresis was eliminated in the static characteristics. It was also found that the output gain decreased, and the phase lag increased as the target frequency increased. The output gain did not change with increasing load. The phase lag tended to improve with the PID controller compared to the PI controller. These results suggest that the combination of double air chambers artificial muscle and external pressure-regulated feedback control can achieve non-hysteresis position control, and it is useful as an actuator in mechatronic systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Technologies in Soft Pneumatic Actuators)
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