Year
2019
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering
Abstract
An emerging topic in robotics research is the development of a robot with soft characteristics to perform complicated locomotion in various environments. Developing an actuator that can be used in soft robotics is a bottleneck in robotics research. Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) offer significant potential to be used in soft robotic applications, especially for bio-inspired robots, because of their remarkable properties of compliance and inherent safety. To realise these soft robotic applications, there is an increasing need to design, optimise and fabricate function-specific flexible pneumatic actuators. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis were to establish a methodology for structural optimisation of SPAs and develop pneumatic actuation systems with a specific function that could be used in various soft robotic applications.
Recommended Citation
Hu, Weiping, Flexible Fluidic Actuators for Soft Robotic Applications, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wollongong, 2019. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1/717
FoR codes (2008)
0903 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, 0913 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 0910 MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING
Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.