Pressurized honeycombs as soft-actuators: a theoretical study

Pressurized honeycombs as soft-actuators: a theoretical study.

The seed capsule of Delosperma nakurense is a remarkable example of a natural hygromorph, which unfolds its protecting valves upon wetting to expose its seeds. The beautiful mechanism responsible for this motion is generated by a specialized organ based on an anisotropic cellular tissue filled with a highly swelling material. Inspired by this system, we study the mechanics of a diamond honeycom...

Polypyrrole Soft Actuators

A soft, bistable valve for autonomous control of soft actuators

John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Enginee...

Soft Pneumatic Actuators for Rehabilitation

Pneumatic artificial muscles are pneumatic devices with practical and various applications as common actuators. They, as human muscles, work in agonistic-antagonistic way, giving a traction force only when supplied by compressed air. The state of the art of soft pneumatic actuators is here analyzed: different models of pneumatic muscles are considered and evolution lines are presented. Then, th...

Artificial annelid robot driven by soft actuators.

The annelid provides a biological solution of effective locomotion adaptable to a large variety of unstructured environmental conditions. The undulated locomotion of the segmented body in the annelid is characterized by the combination of individual motion of the muscles distributed along the body, which has been of keen interest in biomimetic investigation. In this paper, we present an annelid...