Inkjet-printed Electrohydraulic Actuator

Abstract

Soft actuators have emerged as a promising field and have shown great potential to revolutionize robotics, healthcare, and other industries. Among various types of soft actuators, electrohydraulic actuators have proved to be the most versatile with their ability to produce high force and actuation strain without compromising compliance and flexibility. However, the existing fabrication methods for the development of soft actuators may not be well suited for miniature actuator development. Here, we introduced an alternating methodology for fabrication of miniature actuators utilizing inkjet printing and 3D printing. We demonstrated a three-pouch configuration actuator achieving a strain of 8.7<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">%</sup> by optimizing design parameters.