Design of Two Segments Continuum Robot Arm Based on Pneumatic Muscle Actuator (PMA)

This paper proposes a novel continuum robot arm based on the pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA). The simple design of the extensor and the contractor PMAs are used to implement the extension and the contraction sections respectively. Five actuators are used in each section to achieve an elongation and bending for the top section and a contraction and bending for the bottom section. Then, four self-bending contraction actuators (SBCA) are used instead of the five contractions PMA to enhance the bending performances. The performances of the proposed soft robot arm showed the advantages of using a biological inspiration robot arm for the unique features in comparison to its weight and cost.