Inflatable soft actuators that can change shape with a simple increase in pressure can be powerful, lightweight, and flexible components for soft robotic systems. But there’s a problem: These actuators always deform in the same way upon pressurization.
To enhance the functionality of soft robots, it is important to enable additional and more complex modes of deformation in soft actuators.
Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have taken inspiration from origami to create inflatable structures that can bend, twist and move in complex, distinct ways from a single source of pressure.
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