On the new reversal effect in monolithic compliant bending mechanisms with fluid driven actuators

This paper presents a reversal effect which is a particular deformation effect of compliant monolithic fluid driven actuators. Compared to conventional miniaturizable bending structures the mechanisms discussed in this paper have several properties such as larger movement range, greater flexibility and less sensory effort. Typical applications of the discussed mechanisms with novel reversal effect are gripping and manipulating tasks in robotics. This paper is mainly focused on the analytical and numerical investigations together with experimental verification describing the reversal effect of the considered mechanisms.