#  Modeling 

 



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Soft pneumatic actuators are designed to handle large deformations and large mechanical strains. At these high values of strain, the actuator behavior is highly unpredictable. The materials employed to fabricate these actuators exhibit complex hyperelastic, viscoelastic non-linear behavior. Furthermore, fabricating soft pneumatic actuators is time consuming and it is helpful to know the performance characteristics obtainable *a priori*. Thus, numerical models using the finite element method (FEM) are developed to predict actuator behavior at large deformation values so as to design more efficient actuators and soft robotic components.

A set of four demos is presented in this section to guide the user step-by-step through the process of creating and testing a numerical model for the actuators using the commercial FEM software AbaqusTM . The software interfaces with the python scripts provided in the design tool and enables the automation of the design procedure by providing capabilities for geometry and material variation as input design parameters.

The following demos are provided:

[Demo 1: Modeling Multi-Chamber Linear Actuators](/book/modeling-soft-pneumatic-actuators/modeling/demo-1)

[Demo 2: Modeling Multi-Chamber Bending Actuators](/book/modeling-soft-pneumatic-actuators/modeling/demo-2)

[Demo 3: Modeling Single-Chamber Shell-Reinforced Linear Actuators](/book/modeling-soft-pneumatic-actuators/modeling/demo-3)

[Demo 4: Modeling Single-Chamber Shell-Reinforced Bending Actuators](/book/modeling-soft-pneumatic-actuators/modeling/demo-4)



 

##  Bibliography 

Agarwal et al. (2016) [Stretchable Materials for Robust Soft Actuators towards Assistive Wearable Devices](/publications/stretchable-materials-robust-soft-actuators-towards-assistive-wearable)

Moseley et al. (2015) [Modeling, Design, and Development of Soft Pneumatic Actuators with Finite Element Method](/publications/modeling-design-and-development-soft-pneumatic-actuators-finite-element)

Sonar et al. (2016) [Soft Pneumatic Actuator Skin with Piezoelectric Sensors for Vibrotactile Feedback](http://softroboticstoolkit.com/publications/soft-pneumatic-actuator-skin-piezoelectric-sensors-vibrotactile-feedback)

Paez et al. (2016) [Design and Analysis of a Soft Pneumatic Actuator with Origami Shell Reinforcement](http://softroboticstoolkit.com/publications/design-and-analysis-soft-pneumatic-actuator-origami-shell-reinforcement)

## Contributors

[Dr. Gunjan Agarwal](http://agarwalgmit.wixsite.com/gunjan)

Dr. Philip Moseley

Dr. Juan Florez

Harshal Sonar

Prof. William Curtin

Prof. Jamie Paik