The pressure inside the actuator was gradually increased in increments of 1 psi, and the force exerted by its tip was recorded. Again, one end of the actuator was mounted in a rigid fixture, and a short rod to the force sensor was brought in contact with the tip of the actuator. (2013) Force Delivery CapabilityĪ 6-axis force/torque sensor was used to measure the force capacity of the actuator. These coordinates were then used to produce the following graph. The x and y coordinates of the actuator tip throughout its motion were tracked, creating a trajectory for the tip’s motion.
#KINOVEA 0.8.15 SOFTWARE#
The resulting image frames were post-processed and analyzed with video analysis software ( Kinovea 0.8.15). To estimate the trajectory of the tip, the soft actuator was pressurized and depressurized three times while the camera recorded the motion. As you can see in the photographs (left), a ruler was mounted beside the actuator to provide a scale for pixel-to-length conversion during image analysis. The checkerboard pattern in the background was used in registering and aligning the camera (in order to address lens distortion and improve accuracy). The actuator was inflated and the trajectory of its tip was observed.Ī high definition camera was positioned to view the actuator from the side. One end of the actuator was mounted in a rigid fixture (similar to the "encastre" boundary condition used in the FEM model).
This test was carried out by Polygerinos et al. The tests were carried out using an evaluation platform based on the Soft Robotics Toolkit control board.Ī summary of the results from these experiments can be found in the Variation: Material and Variations: Morphology sections. In many of these examples, the researchers conducted the tests in order to validate the results of their Modeling and Analysis. The aim of presenting these examples is to help you think about what types of tests you may need to perform to help guide your design. You may find the methods described useful for characterizing the behavior of your own actuator designs. This section describes some examples of empirical tests that have been carried out to characterize PneuNets actuators.