Gripping Force Modeling of a Variable Inclined Air Pillow Soft Pneumatic Actuator

Soft pneumatic actuators grasping tasks is one of the essential rules in robot manipulation methods. The grasping forces can be adapted to handle delicate and hard objects without leaving any damages on the object surfaces. This paper investigates the influence of the inclination angle of the soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) on its gripping force at its end tip. A range of inclination angles for SPA is analyzed using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to estimate the gripping force at the end tip regarding SPA inner faces pressure. FEA study is conducted based on Hyperelastic material modeling employing non-linear analysis. Experimental validation is performed for three different air pillow inclined angle of SPAs fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing. Experimental and FEA simulated data are compared to each other. Finally, a regression-based mathematical model is developed to obtain a direct correlation between the SPAs gripping force behavior concerning the inclination angle and applied pressure based on FEA data.