BENDING OF FLEXIBLE JOINT DRIVEN BY LINEAR EXPANDABLE ARTIFICIAL MUSCLE

Jun Zhang and Qiu J. Zhang

Keywords

Flexible finger joint, elastomeric bellows, plate-spring skeleton, cantilever beam, elliptical integral

Abstract

A flexible finger joint is proposed and applied in multi-joint ma- nipulator. The plate-spring composes of a flexible skeleton. The linear expandable elastomeric bellows by air pressure is used as an artificial muscle. Bend angle of the joint is related to air pressure in the bellows. Static model of the joint bend has been created by assuming that the counteracting force from elastic elongation of the bellows is negligible. The problems of pure mechanics and the model have been studied in detail. The numerical solution based on the model is obtained for the case of the large deflection of cantilever beam synchronously acted on cantilever end by a couple in variable scalar along with forces changing in both scalar and direction.

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