Apparatus, system, and method for providing fabric-elastomer composites as pneumatic actuators

Title: Apparatus, system, and method for providing fabric-elastomer composites as pneumatic actuators

Soft pneumatic actuators based on composites consisting of elastomers with embedded sheet or fiber structures (e.g., paper or fabric) that are flexible but not extensible are described. On pneumatic inflation, these actuators move anisotropically, based on the motions accessible by their composite structures. They are inexpensive, simple to fabricate, light in weight, and easy to actuate. This class of structure is versatile: the same principles of design lead to actuators that respond to pressurization with a wide range of motions (bending, extension, contraction, twisting, and others). Paper, when used to introduce anisotropy into elastomers, can be readily folded into three-dimensional structures following the principles of origami; these folded structures increase the stiffness and anisotropy of the elastomeric actuators, while keeping them light in weight.

Inventors:: Martinez, Ramses V.; Whitesides, George M.

Issue Date:: 2017-10-25

OSTI Identifier:: 1404934

Assignee:: President and Fellows of Harvard College CHO

Patent Number(s):: 9,797,415

Application Number:: 14/467,758

Contract Number:: FG02-00ER45852

Resource Relation:: Patent File Date: 2014 Aug 25

Research Org:: President and Fellows of Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Org:: USDOE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 42 ENGINEERING

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