Topology-Optimized Pneumatic Soft Actuator: Design and Experimental Validation
For soft robotics researchers, this provides a validated computational design method for 3D soft actuators, though it is an incremental extension of existing 2D work.
This paper extends a 2D topology optimization framework to 3D for designing soft pneumatic actuators, achieving maximized bending response under prescribed pressure. Two optimized designs were fabricated and experimentally validated, demonstrating the framework's ability to handle large deformations.
This paper demonstrates the computational design of soft elastomeric pneumatic actuators using nonlinear topology optimization. An existing density- and porohyperelasticity-based topology optimization framework was extended from 2D to 3D and used to generate two manufacturable actuator designs, which were then studied numerically and experimentally. For both designs, the objective was to maximize the bending response for a prescribed actuation pressure under two different allowable strain limits. A key advantage of the employed topology optimization framework is that it can consistently, during the optimization, account for the very large deformations induced upon pressurization. The two optimized 3D designs were fabricated using stereolithography and experimentally tested to validate their performance.