Kinematics analysis and experimental study on three-dimensional space bending flexible pneumatic arm

A type of three-dimensional space bending flexible pneumatic arm employing axial elongation pneumatic artificial muscles was proposed. It was mainly composed of six pneumatic artificial muscles symmetrically distributed in parallel, and six artificial muscles were fixed 60° each other in space. The elastic skeleton was added among the arm to improve its rigidity and stability. Especially, the driving device of the arm was just the body of the arm. The arm has the advantages of simple structure, convenient manufacture, safety and flexibility, and it can achieve omnidirectional bending movement. According to the static characteristic and deformation of the arm, the kinematics model and the grasping force model of the arm were established. Further, the theoretical model was verified by experiments and then the relations between deforming properties, the working space, the grasping force and air pressure of the arm were obtained. The motion performance experiment of the arm was carried out in a laboratory environment. The experimental results show that the flexible arm has flexible movements, strong adaptive ability, simple control, and certain load capacity when bending.