TY - GEN
T1 - A Soft Pneumatic Fabric-Polymer Actuator for Wearable Biomedical Devices
T2 - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2018
AU - Suarez, Etsel
AU - Huaroto, Juan J.
AU - Reymundo, Alberto A.
AU - Holland, Donal
AU - Walsh, Conor
AU - Vela, Emir
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
PY - 2018/9/10
Y1 - 2018/9/10
N2 - Soft actuators are ideal candidates for wearable biomedical devices, their inherent compliance, robustness, lightweight and the possibility to be washable take advantage over rigid actuators. Thus, a soft pneumatic fabric-polymer bending actuator as a base component for a robotic device for lymphedema treatment is reported in this work. The actuator is composed of two mechanical elements, one made of fabric and the other one made of a hyperelastic polymer which is stuck on the fabric element. The fabric element is designed and fabricated with a curved shape longer than the polymer element, that is a hyperelastic beam. To assemble both elements, the fabric element was folded before sticking in order to match the length of the polymer beam. Once the air is pumped into the fabric, it bends towards its original curved shape. Once the air is removed, the hyperelastic beam allows the actuator to recover its initial position. This actuator is capable of exerting compression and lateral force on a human arm mimicking manual lymphatic drainage. A mathematical model is presented which is in good agreement with the experimental data, it could serve to predict the actuator motion. An end-tip free bending displacement of about 2.2 cm and a bending force of about 0.35 N were achieved at 12.5 kPa. A proof-of-concept system for lymphedema treatment is presented as well.
AB - Soft actuators are ideal candidates for wearable biomedical devices, their inherent compliance, robustness, lightweight and the possibility to be washable take advantage over rigid actuators. Thus, a soft pneumatic fabric-polymer bending actuator as a base component for a robotic device for lymphedema treatment is reported in this work. The actuator is composed of two mechanical elements, one made of fabric and the other one made of a hyperelastic polymer which is stuck on the fabric element. The fabric element is designed and fabricated with a curved shape longer than the polymer element, that is a hyperelastic beam. To assemble both elements, the fabric element was folded before sticking in order to match the length of the polymer beam. Once the air is pumped into the fabric, it bends towards its original curved shape. Once the air is removed, the hyperelastic beam allows the actuator to recover its initial position. This actuator is capable of exerting compression and lateral force on a human arm mimicking manual lymphatic drainage. A mathematical model is presented which is in good agreement with the experimental data, it could serve to predict the actuator motion. An end-tip free bending displacement of about 2.2 cm and a bending force of about 0.35 N were achieved at 12.5 kPa. A proof-of-concept system for lymphedema treatment is presented as well.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85063127799
U2 - 10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460790
DO - 10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460790
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85063127799
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
SP - 5452
EP - 5458
BT - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2018
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 21 May 2018 through 25 May 2018
ER -