High-speed soft actuators based on combustion-enabled transient driving method (TDM)

• Published in: Extreme Mechanics Letters Vol. 37; p. 100731
• Main Authors: Yang, Yang, Hou, Bozhi, Chen, Jingyao, Wang, Haipeng, Jiao, Pengcheng, He, Zhiguo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2020
• Subjects: Mixed gas combustion; Premixed gas ([formula omitted]-[formula omitted]); Sosft actuators; Transient driving method (TDM); Transient driving method (TDM); Mixed gas combustion; Sosft actuators; Premixed gas (O2-C3H8)
• ISSN: 2352-4316; 2352-4316
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eml.2020.100731

Soft actuators have been extensively deployed to trigger motions for multifunctional applications in recent years. It is of desire to optimize the driving method of soft actuators such that to obtain high accelerations. Here, we report a transient driving method (TDM) enabled by the combustion of mixed gases. Experiments are conducted on the hyperelastic silicon membranes exploded by the premixed oxygen and propane. Numerical and theoretical models are developed to investigate the kinematic response of the soft actuators with respect to the gas amount A and gas volume fraction r of the premixed gases, and satisfactory agreements are obtained between the experimental data, numerical results and theoretical predictions. An empirical model is also summarized for the applicability of the predictions. Optimal design is carried out to control and maximize the achievable driving peak using the transient driving method. An underwater soft jumper is developed by the soft actuator which can jump out of the water for 3 times body length on average and about 6 times body length at most, which showed obvious enhancement of the driving peak in comparison with the existing underwater combustion-driven soft robot. The reported TDM provides a promising powering technique for the applications of soft actuators in engineering.