A Restorable, Variable Stiffness Pneumatic Soft Gripper Based on Jamming of Strings of Beads

Soft robots based on particle jamming cannot return to the initial position and initial mechanical state due to the accumulation of particles after removing the particle jamming, which means poor restorability, and the compliance of the robots during deformation will be reduced because of the jamming effect. Here, we present the design, fabrication, and tests of a novel soft actuator with good restorability and compliance. To improve the restorability of the actuator, we used cotton threads to connect the spherical acrylic beads into form strings instead of discrete beads. The beads could be pulled to the initial position by the threads, the actuator also returns to the initial state. To avoid the jamming effect during the deformation of the actuator, we used compressed air to drive the actuator and injected the beads into the actuator after the active deformation. To reduce the driving pressure and facilitate the flow of the beads, an initial noncontact, frame-type strain constraint structure was designed for the soft actuator. Experimental data show that the actuator was flexible during bending and the stiffness can increase more than 12-fold to resist the external load. By pulling the threads, the actuator could be restored to the initial state with an error of less than 3% of the actuator length after an operation cycle. The soft gripper based on the actuator can grasp repeatedly or laterally. The gripper can grasp soft objects such as a piece of tofu and a balloon of water, and the maximum weight that can be stably grasped is 2.744 kg.

Automated summary

This article presents the design, fabrication, and tests of a novel soft actuator with good restorability and compliance. Cotton threads were used to connect the spherical acrylic beads into form strings to improve the restorability of the actuator. Compressed air was used to drive the actuator and beads were injected into the actuator after active deformation to avoid the jamming effect. Pulling the threads allowed the actuator to be restored to the initial state with minimal error.