Static Modeling of an Inflatable Robotic Arm for Aerospace Applications

Robots designed with soft material represent a growing trend in recent years and their use in space applications could minimize bulk and mass, reducing space mission costs. To achieve this goal the structure of soft robots must guarantee the possibility to be stored using deployment mechanisms. In this paper, the concept of an innovative inflatable robotic arm is proposed. The robot consists of two inflatable links and three actuated rigid joints. It can be stored in a relatively small package, if compared to its extended configuration, and can be inflated when required. After an overview of the robotic system, a radial deformation model is proposed to describe the link behavior, aiming for developing its control. The last section shows experimental tests performed on the link prototype to evaluate the static characterization with respect to the supplied pressure. Results suggest the validity of the adopted approach to model the inflatable link, putting the basis for the development of a suited control algorithm for the robotic system.