Testing

To further test our findings and to provide us with a path forward, we performed durability, solubility, and actuation testing on the King Actuator. 

We tested different materials for the inserts. We tested the time, temperature, as well as conducted a comparative analysis between the polystyrene and the polyvinyl alcohol. Durability testing was performed by observing the time to delaminate or rupture an actuator for different fabrication techniques. We also did qualitative to see if the King Actuators could achieve the same bending as PneuNet actuators.

As a part of our effort to apply the King Actuator as a teaching tool, we performed pressure data collection and clay pottery image analysis on the pots thrown by professionals and students. 

We attempted to prove the validity of the King Actuator in pottery instruction through data collection and image analysis. Unfortunately, we were unable to consistently and accurately output pressures to the actuators on the hands of the student. Thus, our effort to further the effectiveness the use of soft robotics in the ceramics classroom is still underway. Nevertheless, we were able to read pressures and are able to output a square wave representation of the data. As a testament to our new fabrication method, the actuators did not delaminate or rupture while throwing pots, demonstrating the durability of the King Acutator.

30 Second Video by Intel Chen

Actuator Assisted ThrowingSolubility TestingActuator Testing

 

Haverford Soft Robotics 2018