Title
A Soft Pneumatic Fabric-Polymer Actuator for Wearable Biomedical Devices: Proof of Concept for Lymphedema Treatment
Date Issued
10 September 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
conference paper
Author(s)
Suarez, Etsel
Reymundo, Alberto
Holland D.
Walsh C.
Publisher(s)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers -IEEE
Abstract
Soft actuators are ideal candidates for wearable biomedical devices, their inherent compliance, robustness, lightweight and the possibility to be washable take advantage over rigid actuators. Thus, a soft pneumatic fabric-polymer bending actuator as a base component for a robotic device for lymphedema treatment is reported in this work. The actuator is composed of two mechanical elements, one made of fabric and the other one made of a hyperelastic polymer which is stuck on the fabric element. The fabric element is designed and fabricated with a curved shape longer than the polymer element, that is a hyperelastic beam. To assemble both elements, the fabric element was folded before sticking in order to match the length of the polymer beam. Once the air is pumped into the fabric, it bends towards its original curved shape. Once the air is removed, the hyperelastic beam allows the actuator to recover its initial position. This actuator is capable of exerting compression and lateral force on a human arm mimicking manual lymphatic drainage. A mathematical model is presented which is in good agreement with the experimental data, it could serve to predict the actuator motion. An end-tip free bending displacement of about 2.2 cm and a bending force of about 0.35 N were achieved at 12.5 kPa. A proof-of-concept system for lymphedema treatment is presented as well.
Start page
5452
End page
5458
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Sistemas de automatización, Sistemas de control
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85063127799
Resource of which it is part
Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
ISBN of the container
978-153863081-5
Conference
2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2018 Brisbane 21 May 2018 through 25 May 2018
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus