Traditional robots are made from hard materials like hard plastic or metal and consist of
regular rigid mechanical parts. Using those parts has some limitations, like limited
dexterity and lack of flexibility. Some of these limitations could be avoided through using
a compliant material, because it has higher flexibility and dexterity. It is also safer to be in
direct contact with humans. This thesis studies soft pneumatic manipulators (SPMs) that
move in multi degrees of freedom (MDOF), which makes them able to perform various
functions. The study will include designing, fabricating, and testing three different SPMs
with different taper angles -- 0^0, 1^0, and 2^0 -- to measure the effect of varying this geometry
on the achievable force by the end effector and the range of bending and elongation. Every
single SPM consists of three soft pneumatic chambers to reach unlimited points on its
workspace through implementing bending and elongating movements. There are a lot of
applications for this kind of soft actuators, like rehabilitation, underwater utilizes, and
robots for surgery and rescues. Most soft pneumatic actuators provide one kind of movement, for bending, twisting, or elongating. Combining more than one kind of
movement in one soft pneumatic actuator provides considerable contributions to the body
of research. The SPMs were controlled and tested to evaluate the achieved force and two
kinds of movement, bending and elongating range. The results of each module has been
compared with the others to determine which actuator has the best performance. Then a
force controller was created to maintain the desired force that was achieved by the end
effector. The results indicated that the optimal angle of the SPM was 2^0. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_40814 |
| Contributors | Holdar, Mohammad (author), Engeberg, Erik (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), College of Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 82 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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