Journal
ACTUATORS
Volume 10, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/act10050094
Keywords
soft robotics; knitted actuators; wearables; assistive devices
Funding
- EU Marie Sklodowska Curie IF Project Textile based Soft Sensing Actuators for Soft Robotic Applications-TexRobots [842786]
- Marie Curie Actions (MSCA) [842786] Funding Source: Marie Curie Actions (MSCA)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Computerized machine knitting technology offers a rapid and scalable manufacturing technique for incorporating wearable assistive devices into garments, paving the way for mass-production of customizable soft robotics wearables.
Computerized machine knitting offers an attractive fabrication technology for incorporating wearable assistive devices into garments. In this work, we utilized, for the first time, whole-garment knitting techniques to manufacture a seamless fully knitted pneumatic bending actuator, which represents an advancement to existing cut-and-sew manufacturing techniques. Various machine knitting parameters were investigated to create anisotropic actuator structures, which exhibited a range of bending and extension motions when pressurized with air. The functionality of the actuator was demonstrated through integration into an assistive glove for hand grip action. The achieved curvature range when pressurizing the actuators up to 150 kPa was sufficient to grasp objects down to 3 cm in diameter and up to 125 g in weight. This manufacturing technique is rapid and scalable, paving the way for mass-production of customizable soft robotics wearables.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available