Novel Design of a Soft Pump Driven by Super-Coiled Polymer Artificial Muscles
Yu Alexander Tse, Ki Wan Wong, Yang Yang, Michael Yu Wang
Abstract
The widespread use of fluidic actuation for soft robots creates a high demand for soft pumps and compressors. However, current off-the-shelf pumps are usually rigid, noisy, and cumbersome. As a result, it is hard to integrate most commercial pumps into soft robotic systems, which restricts the autonomy and portability of soft robots. This paper presents the novel design of a soft pump based on bellow structure and super-coiled polymer (SCP) artificial muscles. The pump is flexible, lightweight, modular, scalable, quiet, and low cost. The pumping mechanism and fabrication process of the proposed soft pump is demonstrated. A pump prototype is fabricated to verify the proposed design and characterize its performance. From the characterization results, the pump can reach an output flow rate of up to 54 ml/min and delivers pressure up to 2.63 kPa. The pump has potential applications in untethered soft robots and wearable devices.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2020_noveldesignofaso,
title = {Novel Design of a Soft Pump Driven by Super-Coiled Polymer Artificial Muscles},
author = {Yu Alexander Tse and Ki Wan Wong and Yang Yang and Michael Yu Wang},
booktitle = {IROS 2020},
year = {2020}
}