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Modeling soft machines driven by buckling actuators

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 157-158; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2019.05.014

1879-2162

Guoli Wang, Meie Li, Jinxiong Zhou,

Advanced Materials and Mechanics

Buckling of elastomeric materials is recoverable and can be harnessed to provide useful functions. Soft machines enabled by buckling actuators have been demonstrated experimentally, while no efforts have been conducted to model these actuators and machines numerically. This paper fills this blank and presents numerical modelling of buckling actuators and the derived soft machines. Key design parameters are obtained through the simulation, which are missing and typically difficult to be obtained in experiment. The numerical results are helpful to understanding the working mechanism of buckling actuators, and shed light on design and control of soft machines enabled by buckling actuators. The idea and the strategy can be developed further for the design of other soft machines.