Body-Powered and Portable Soft Hydraulic Actuators as Prosthetic Hands

Abstract

Soft robotic actuators are highly flexible, compliant, dexterous, and lightweight alternatives that can potentially replace conventional rigid actuators in various human-centric applications. This research aims to develop a soft robotic actuator that leverages body movements to mimic the function of human fingers for gripping and grasping tasks. Unlike the predominantly used chamber-based actuation, this study utilizes actuators made from elastomers embedded with fiber braiding. The Young’s modulus of the elastomer and braiding angles of the fiber highly influenced the bending angle and force generated by these actuators. In this experiment, the bending and force profiles of these actuators were characterized by varying the combinations of elastomeric materials and braiding angles to suit hand manipulation tasks. Additionally, we found that utilizing water, which is relatively more incompressible than air, as the actuation fluid enabled easier actuation of the actuators using body movements. Lastly, we demonstrated a body-powered actuator setup that can provide comfort to patients in terms of portability, standalone capability, and cost effectiveness, potentially allowing them to be used in a wide range of wearable robotic applications.