A contraction type soft actuator using poly vinyl chloride gel

A poly vinyl chloride (PVC) gel actuator shows great potential for use as an artificial muscle because of such positive characteristics as movement in the air, large deformation, and being light in weight. A bending type actuator using PVC gel was studied previously [4]–[6]. In order to construct an artificial muscle it is necessary to compose an actuator which has the characteristics of contraction type deformation. In this study we propose an electrode arrangement for the PVC gel actuator. Also, we investigate the characteristics of the proposed actuator experimentally and show the effectiveness of the actuator as an artificial muscle. The proposed actuator has a layered structure using mesh type electrodes. The experimental results showed that the contraction rate of the actuator was about 13%, the response rate was 1–3Hz, and the output force was 1–2kPa. The characteristics of the PVC gel actuator are shown to be very effective for constructing an artificial muscle.