Session: MR-07-04 - Novel Mechanisms, Robots, and Applications

Paper Number: 91176

91176 - A Variable Stiffness Continuum Parallel Manipulator With 3D Printed Pneumatic Artificial Muscles 

This paper presents a variable stiffness continuum parallel manipulator (VSCPM) with 3D printed pneumatic artificial muscles, which is inspired by parallel mechanisms and soft robotics. The proposed VSCPM is designed by connecting a fixed base and a moving platform with three pneumatic bellows muscles in parallel and circular distribution, and the moving platform has three degrees of freedom (two rotations and one translation). The design parameters of the bellows muscle and the VSCPM with a set of optimized 3D printing settings for fabricating air tight pneumatic muscles using flexible Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) filament are first introduced aimed at achieving rapid and low-cost manufacturing in comparison with other approach such as injecting silicon rubber into prefabricated molds. A prototype of the VSCPM is fabricated using the 3D printing settings. A pneumatic control system is designed and built for providing both positive and negative pressures to adjust the position and stiffness of the VSCPM. The stiffness of a 3D printed bellows muscle under both positive and negative pressures is tested. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed VSCPM is able to achieve a range of steering angle from 0° to 360° and a range of inclination angle from 0° to 45°. The stiffness of the VSCPM can also be adjusted by changing the air pressure supplied to the pneumatic artificial muscles. The novel VSCPM is compact, lightweight and soft to ensure the safe interaction with humans, which has a broad range of application such as wrist rehabilitation.

Presenting Author: Zhujin Jiang Queen Mary University of London

Presenting Author Biography: Zhujin Jiang is a PhD student with Queen Mary University of London. His research main focus on soft robotics, quadruped robots, parallel mechanisms and novel actuators.

Authors:

Zhujin Jiang Queen Mary University of London
Chen Liu Queen Mary University of London
Ketao Zhang Queen Mary University of London