Pump Up the Jam: Granular Media as a Quasi-Hydraulic Fluid for Independent Control Over Isometric and Isotonic Actuation.

ABSTRACT: Elastomer-granule composites have been used to switch between soft and stiff states by applying negative pressure differentials that cause the membrane to squeeze the internal grains, inducing dilation and jamming. Applications of this phenomenon have ranged from universal gripping to adaptive mobility. Previously, the combination of this jamming phenomenon with the ability to transport grains across multiple soft actuators for shape morphing has not yet been demonstrated. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the use of hollow glass spheres as granular media that functions as a jammable "quasi-hydraulic" fluid in a fluidic elastomeric actuator that better mimics a key featur of animal musculature: independent control over i) isotonic actuation for motion; and ii) isometric actuation for

SUBMITTER: Bakarich SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9131430 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature