Improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement
Soft cable-driven actuators offer flexibility and adaptability but often lack stiffness, limiting their application in tasks requiring high load capacity. A variable stiffness mechanism has been developed to change the stiffness as needed to increase the actuator’s applications further. The layer ja...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Mechanical Engineering Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/mej/12/4/12_25-00106/_pdf/-char/en |
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| author | Chinvudh UAHCHINKUL Satoshi MURAMATSU Katsuhiko INAGAKI |
| author_facet | Chinvudh UAHCHINKUL Satoshi MURAMATSU Katsuhiko INAGAKI |
| author_sort | Chinvudh UAHCHINKUL |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Soft cable-driven actuators offer flexibility and adaptability but often lack stiffness, limiting their application in tasks requiring high load capacity. A variable stiffness mechanism has been developed to change the stiffness as needed to increase the actuator’s applications further. The layer jamming structure combined with the soft actuator can be tuned to increase the actuator’s stiffness when needed. The mechanical layer jamming using the actuator body to activate the jamming state has been shown as a new method of changing the stiffness of the actuator. The actuator is designed to change stiffness by pulling the cable that is also used for actuator bending. However, it still has low stiffness when jamming, which still limits the applications of actuators. This study focuses on improving the cable-driven actuator’s design to increase stiffness through cable routing and sheet materials. In addition, frame reinforcement was applied to reduce the sheet separation in the mechanical layer jamming. The experiments in each condition of the actuator were conducted by adding an external load to the actuator tip in the bending posture and measuring the displacement of the actuator in order to verify the effectiveness of the design in improving stiffness. The results of experiments show that our approach can successfully increase stiffness and load capacity with variable stiffness capabilities. Moreover, we tested the actuator in the soft gripper application to hold the objects. The results show that the soft gripper can control stiffness and, in the jamming state, is able to grasp the object with 1500g successfully. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-549035da2dfd428c856430b92fe7da0c |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2187-9745 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Mechanical Engineering Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-549035da2dfd428c856430b92fe7da0c2025-08-20T01:59:35ZengThe Japan Society of Mechanical EngineersMechanical Engineering Journal2187-97452025-07-0112425-0010625-0010610.1299/mej.25-00106mejImproving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcementChinvudh UAHCHINKUL0Satoshi MURAMATSU1Katsuhiko INAGAKI2Course of Science and Technology, Tokai UniversityDepartment of Applied Computer Engineering, Tokai UniversityDepartment of Applied Computer Engineering, Tokai UniversitySoft cable-driven actuators offer flexibility and adaptability but often lack stiffness, limiting their application in tasks requiring high load capacity. A variable stiffness mechanism has been developed to change the stiffness as needed to increase the actuator’s applications further. The layer jamming structure combined with the soft actuator can be tuned to increase the actuator’s stiffness when needed. The mechanical layer jamming using the actuator body to activate the jamming state has been shown as a new method of changing the stiffness of the actuator. The actuator is designed to change stiffness by pulling the cable that is also used for actuator bending. However, it still has low stiffness when jamming, which still limits the applications of actuators. This study focuses on improving the cable-driven actuator’s design to increase stiffness through cable routing and sheet materials. In addition, frame reinforcement was applied to reduce the sheet separation in the mechanical layer jamming. The experiments in each condition of the actuator were conducted by adding an external load to the actuator tip in the bending posture and measuring the displacement of the actuator in order to verify the effectiveness of the design in improving stiffness. The results of experiments show that our approach can successfully increase stiffness and load capacity with variable stiffness capabilities. Moreover, we tested the actuator in the soft gripper application to hold the objects. The results show that the soft gripper can control stiffness and, in the jamming state, is able to grasp the object with 1500g successfully.https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/mej/12/4/12_25-00106/_pdf/-char/ensoft actuatorlayer jammingvariable stiffnesscable-driven actuatorsoft gripper |
| spellingShingle | Chinvudh UAHCHINKUL Satoshi MURAMATSU Katsuhiko INAGAKI Improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement Mechanical Engineering Journal soft actuator layer jamming variable stiffness cable-driven actuator soft gripper |
| title | Improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement |
| title_full | Improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement |
| title_fullStr | Improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement |
| title_short | Improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable-driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement |
| title_sort | improving the stiffness of mechanical layer jamming cable driven soft actuators through design optimization and frame reinforcement |
| topic | soft actuator layer jamming variable stiffness cable-driven actuator soft gripper |
| url | https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/mej/12/4/12_25-00106/_pdf/-char/en |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chinvudhuahchinkul improvingthestiffnessofmechanicallayerjammingcabledrivensoftactuatorsthroughdesignoptimizationandframereinforcement AT satoshimuramatsu improvingthestiffnessofmechanicallayerjammingcabledrivensoftactuatorsthroughdesignoptimizationandframereinforcement AT katsuhikoinagaki improvingthestiffnessofmechanicallayerjammingcabledrivensoftactuatorsthroughdesignoptimizationandframereinforcement |