A Type of Actuator with Large Deformation and Load Capacity: Design and Modeling
Lingzhe Meng, Xinyu Wang, Zhuhong Ying, Mingxuan Ding, Peng Jia, Feihong Yun, Gang Wang
Abstract
Flexible actuators have garnered extensive attention due to their flexibility and versatility. However, they still exhibit significant limitations in load capacity and structural stiffness. We have developed a multifunctional rigid-flexible coupled actuator with large deformation and high load capacity. We first investigated the structural design and material selection of the actuator. When establishing the mechanical model, we found that conventional methods could not solve it and that geometric nonlinearity could not be neglected. Therefore, we proposed a rigid-flexible coupled multibody dynamics modeling method suitable for large deformations and conducted static experiments to obtain a nonlinear torque–rotation angle curve. Finally, we compared the simulation results with the dynamic experimental results, demonstrating the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method.