Pneumatic Torsional Actuators for Inflatable Robots

Abstract

This paper discusses a variety of novel fluidic actuators to generate rotary motion. While pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) that can generate linear motion have been researched and developed fairly extensively, little effort has been devoted to develop simple actuators that can provide rotary motion. A variety of possible designs and principles are discussed to achieve such rotary motion, along with accompanying analysis to understand motion and torque characteristics of each actuator. Experiments with prototype actuators validate performance expectations of each design.