Development of a pneumatic silicon outer fence mold actuator

• Published in: Nihon Kikai Gakkai ronbunshū. C Vol. 16; no. 2; pp. 433 - 439
• Main Authors: Hayakawa, Y, Morishita, K, Aichi, M, Thuda, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: 01.02.2004
• ISSN: 0387-5024

In order to develop a human friendly support machine for elderly people, improvement of the interface between human and mechanical system has been becoming very important. Especially, soft mechanical interfaces are strongly required in motion assist machines for handicapped people or elderly people. Therefore, an actuator that has both active dements and passive elements attracts attention to design the soft mechanical interface. To realize these elements, we propose a new type of pneumatic soft actuator that a sponge rubber is covered with silicon rubber (Silicon Outer Fence Mold Actuator). In this paper, the structure of the actuator is explained. Furthermore, it is clarified that the characteristics of the actuator arc influenced by the number of sponge layer and sponge material. Moreover, we clear position control performance of the actuator. That is to say, the effectiveness of the proposed actuator is cleared through some experimental results.