Bioinspired design and fabrication principles of reliable fluidic soft actuation modules

A large percentage of the field of robotics is devoted to catching up to what nature can already do. Taking inspiration from the snake and the jumping spider, we describe advances towards standardized design and fabrication of modular multi-material composite soft pneumatic actuators. Previous pneumatic bi-directional bending actuators used in our soft robotic snake suffered from repeatability challenges and were prone to bursting in the seams. Here, we present a standardized fabrication method of soft pneumatic actuators to reduce the seams and incorporate a more reliable port for the input pressure. In addition, we explore the integration of our flexible curvature sensor, allowing for less invasive proprioceptive sensing of the actuator state. Finally, taking inspiration from jumping spider legs, we propose a plastic exoskeleton system, which can guide soft actuators to form complex shapes when pressurized. We show that all of these actuators were consistent and reliable over numerous trials. The next step is to combine these individual actuators into their respective bioinspired robotic systems: a soft modular snake and a soft jumping spider.