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US 2022/0030985 A1Published application
Soft actuator and method of making the same
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorsYon VISELL, Elliot HAWKES, Do Thanh NHO, Mengjia ZHU
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Abstract
A selectively actuated textile includes one or more pieces of fabric having one or more circumferentially constrained channels and one or more hollow elastic tubes located within the circumferentially constrained channels and configured to receive a working fluid. Selectively providing or removing working fluid from the hollow elastic tubes provides for selective actuation of the textile.
Claims24
A method of fabricating a soft actuator, the method comprising:
- stacking two or more layers of fabric adjacent to one another;
- forming one or more channels between the stacked layers of fabric, wherein the channels provide a circumferential constraint;
- placing one or more hollow elastic tubes within the one or more channels;
- and
- connecting at least a first end of each of the one or more hollow elastic tubes to a delivery system capable of providing a working fluid to the one or more hollow elastic tubes.
2 more elements
A selectively actuated textile comprising:
- one or more pieces of fabric, wherein the one or more pieces of fabric include one or more channels formed within the one or more pieces of fabric and constrained in a circumferential direction;
- and
- one or more first hollow elastic tubes positioned within the one or more channels and configured to receive a working fluid, wherein working fluid is selectively provided to or removed from the one or more first hollow elastic tubes to actuate the selectively actuated textile.
A haptic feedback garment comprising:
- one or more soft actuators embedded within the haptic feedback garment, wherein each actuator includes a hollow elastic tube configured to receive a working fluid;
- one or more tubes, wherein each tube is connected on a first end to an input associated with each of the soft actuators;
- and
- one or more pumps, wherein each pump is configured to provide a working fluid to one of the one or more soft actuators via one of the one or more tubes, wherein application of the working fluid to the soft actuator provides a haptic response to a user wearing the haptic feedback garment.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.