Compliant electric actuators based on handed shearing auxetics

Abstract

In this paper, we explore a new class of electric motor-driven compliant actuators based on handed shearing auxetic cylinders. This technique combines the benefits of compliant bodies from soft robotic actuators with the simplicity of direct coupling to electric motors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique by creating linear actuators, a four degree-of-freedom robotic platform, and a soft robotic gripper. We compare the soft robotic gripper against a state of the art pneumatic soft gripper, finding similar grasping performance in a significantly smaller and more energy-efficient package.