Flexible actuator based on optical fiber bending sensor

Abstract

The invention belongs to the technical field of hand rehabilitation and flexible robots, and discloses a flexible actuator based on an optical fiber bending sensor. The flexible actuator is a cylinder-like body with a corrugated structure on the surface, and comprises a silica gel shell, two cavity mechanisms and the optical fiber bending sensor, wherein the cavity mechanisms and the optical fiberbending sensor are arranged in the silica gel shell; each cavity mechanism is semi-cylindrical and comprises a silica gel cavity, corrugated folds are formed on the portion, far away from the opticalfiber bending sensor, of the surface of the silica gel cavity, and Kevlar fiber wires are spirally wound around the largest part of the corrugated folds; and the optical fiber bending sensor comprises a PMMA plastic optical fiber, when the surface of the PMMA plastic optical fiber is subjected to pressure, axial deformation generated on the PMMA plastic optical fiber is larger than radial deformation, so that the optical fiber bending sensor is not influenced by the pressure when bending measurement is performed. Without being affected by the pressure, the flexible actuator improves measurement accuracy and has good flexibility.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the related technical fields of hand rehabilitation and soft robots, and more specifically relates to a soft actuator based on an optical fiber bending sensor. Background technique [0002] Nowadays, the aging of the social population is getting worse, and the number of people with hemiplegia caused by stroke and other diseases is increasing. At the same time, the number of people with impaired hand motor function due to accidents such as production accidents and traffic accidents is also increasing year by year. These patients are often unable to take care of themselves due to limb motor dysfunction, which brings a lot of pressure to the family and society. Robot-assisted rehabilitation training can save a lot of manpower and material resources, and can quantitatively evaluate the patient's rehabilitation progress, and carry out training step by step according to the patient's rehabilitation status. [0003] In hand rehabilit...

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Problems solved by technology

[0004] Although soft actuators with flexible structures have very good application prospects in hand motor rehabilitation, the current research on soft actuators is not mature, which is manifested in the fact that there is no suitable sensor to control the bending of soft actuators. The angle is better measured, and although the thin-film flexible bending sensor on the market can measure the bending, it cannot be well integrated into the software actuator because the surface pressure has a serious impact on the measurement

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