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Slit Tubes for Semisoft Pneumatic Actuators
Author(s) -
Belding Lee,
Baytekin Bilge,
Baytekin Hasan Tarik,
Rothemund Philipp,
Verma Mohit S.,
Nemiroski Alex,
Sameoto Dan,
Grzybowski Bartosz A.,
Whitesides George M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201704446
Subject(s) - actuator , pneumatic actuator , materials science , slit , pneumatic artificial muscles , elastomer , fabrication , bending , tube (container) , soft robotics , modulus , artificial muscle , mechanical engineering , acoustics , optics , composite material , physics , engineering , electrical engineering , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
This article describes a new principle for designing soft or ‘semisoft’ pneumatic actuators: SLiT (for SLit‐in‐Tube) actuators. Inflating an elastomeric balloon, when enclosed by an external shell (a material with higher Young's modulus) containing slits of different directions and lengths, produces a variety of motions, including bending, twisting, contraction, and elongation. The requisite pressure for actuation depends on the length of the slits, and this dependence allows sequential actuation by controlling the applied pressure. Different actuators can also be controlled using external “sliders” that act as reprogrammable “on‐off” switches. A pneumatic arm and a walker constructed from SLiT actuators demonstrate their ease of fabrication and the range of motions they can achieve.