Design and Analysis of a Soft Bidirectional Bending Actuator for HumanRobot Interaction Applications The design of a novel, soft bidirectional actuator which can improve the humanrobot interactions in collaborative applications is proposed in this paper. This actuator is advantageous over the existing designs due to the additional degree of freedom for the same number of pressure inputs as found in the conventional designs. This improves the workspace of the bidirectional actuator significantly and is able to achieve higher angles of bidirectional bending at much lower values of input pressure. This is achieved by eliminating the passive impedance offered by one side of the bending chamber in compression when the other side of the chamber is inflated. A simple kinematic model of the actuator is presented and theoretical and finite element analysis is carried out to predict the fundamental behavior of the actuator. The results are validated through experiments using a fabricated model of the soft bidirectional bending actuator.

Modeling, Simulation and Experimental Validation of a Tendondriven Softarm Robot Configuration  A Continuum Mechanics Method This paper presents the mathematical derivation and experimental validation of a computational model, which accurately predicts static, largestrain deformations of tendon driven nonslender softarm manipulators subjected to gravity. The large strain behaviors are captured by employing the GreenLagrange strain and by deriving analytical expressions for the variation of the equivalent Young modulus of the structure due to the large strains. No simplifying assumptions are made regarding the curvature of the structure, the stretching or the compression. Furthermore the paper proposes an iterative method for numerically solving the resultant nonlinear system of coupled differential equations and demonstrates a number of application scenarios. The model is experimentally validated using a setup comprising one segment of tendon driven softarm, which integrates stretchable and compressible hyperelastic (rubbertype) materials into its nonhomogeneous back bone structure.