BPActuators: Lightweight and Low-Cost Soft Actuators by Balloons and Plastics

TL;DR

This paper introduces BPActuators, a simple, affordable, and accessible soft robotic actuator made from balloons and plastics, capable of bending, exerting force, and grasping objects, thus broadening soft robotics accessibility.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel low-cost, easy-to-fabricate soft actuator using balloons and plastics, enabling wider access to soft robotics without specialized equipment.

Findings

Actuators bend up to 35 degrees and exert force around 0.070N.

The gripper can lift objects at least 8 times its weight.

Each BPActuator costs approximately $0.22.

Abstract

To increase the awareness and impact, soft robotics needs to go beyond the lab environment and should be readily accessible to those even with no robotic expertise. However, most prevailing manufacturing methodologies require either professional equipment or materials that are not usually available to common people, thereby constraining the accessibility of soft robotics. In this communication, we propose a lightweight and low-cost soft bending actuator, called BPActuator, that can be easily fabricated with plastics and balloons. We fabricated a range of actuators with various morphology for characterization in terms of deformation and load-bearing capacity, and demonstrated that they can bend up to 35 degrees and exert force at the tip around 0.070$\pm$0.015N, which is over 5 times higher than their average gravity. We further implemented a gripper with three fingers using the proposed actuators, and found that the gripper can realize human-like grasp of a range of daily objects. The gripper can lift objects at least 8 times heavier than its own weight. Furthermore, the BPActuator is cost effective and each costs about 0.22 USD. Given these advantages, the BPActuators are expected to significantly improve the accessibility of soft robotics to a wider group without robotic expertise.