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The purpose of this paper is to quantify the combined effect of shape distortion and bend angle on the collapse loads of pipe bends exposed to internal pressure and in-plane closing bending moment. Non-linear finite element analysis with large displacement theory was performed considering the pipe bend material to be elastic perfectly plastic.

One half of the pipe bend model was built in ABAQUS. Shape distortion, namely, ovality (Co) and thinning (Ct), were each varied from 0% to 20% in steps of 5% and bend angle was varied from 30° to 180° in steps of 30°.

The findings show that ovality has a significant impact on collapse load. The effect of ovality decreases with an increase in bend angle for small thickness. The opposite effect was observed for large thickness pipe bends. The influence of ovality was more for higher bend angles. Ovality impact was almost negligible at certain internal pressure denoted as nullifying point (NP). The latter increased with an increase in pipe bend thickness and decreased with increase in pipe bend radius. For small bend angles one NP was observed where ovality impact is negligible and beyond this point the ovality effect increased. Two NPs were observed for large bend angles and ovality effect was maximum between the two NPs. Thinning yielded a minimal effect on collapse load except for small bend angles and bend radii. The influence of internal pressure on thinning was also negligible.

Influence of shape distortions and bend angle on collapse load of pipe bend exposed to internal pressure and in-plane closing bending has been not revealed in existing literature.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of structural deformations and bend angle on plastic collapse load of pipe bends under an in-plane closing bending moment (IPCM). A large strain formulation of three-dimensional non-linear finite element analysis was performed using an elastic perfectly plastic material. A unified mathematical solution was proposed to estimate the collapse load of pipe bends subjected to IPCM for the considered range of bend characteristics.

ABAQUS was used to create one half of the pipe bend model due to its symmetry on the longitudinal axis. Structural deformations, i.e. ovality (C_o) and thinning (C_t) varied from 0% to 20% in 5% steps while the bend angle (ø) varied from 30° to 180° in steps of 30°.

The plastic collapse load decreases as the bend angle increase for all pipe bend models. A remarkable effect on the collapse load was observed for bend angles between 30° and 120° beyond which a decline was noticed. Ovality had a significant effect on the collapse load with this effect decreasing as the bend angle increased. The combined effect of thinning and bend angle was minimal for the considered models and the maximum per cent variation in collapse load was 5.76% for small bend angles and bend radius pipe bends and less than 2% for other cases.

The effect of structural deformations and bend angle on collapse load of pipe bends exposed to IPCM has been not studied in the existing literature.

It is important to monitor wrist four direction movements (flexion, extension, adduction and abduction) for hand healthcare, wrist rehabilitation and upper limb exercise, and so on. The purpose of this study is to develop a quadri-directional optical bending sensor that integrated wearable device technology in a smart glove to detect wrist four direction movements.

The quadri-directional optical bending sensor was designed with a microcontroller board, a Bluetooth wireless module, a side-emitting polymeric optical fibre (POF), an infrared light emitting diode and four phototransistors. A linear equation was deduced to calculate bending angle from detecting sensor value of Arduino microcontroller. The bending angle values could be seen by the smartphone screen, so the system has a good human–machine interface function.

The light emission by macro-bending of the side-emitting POFs that the transmittance of the outer side is greater than the inner. The bending POFs lateral emission phenomenon integrated with phototransistors on the edge is suitable for the development of bending sensors.

This study is to develop a novel quadri-directional optical bending sensor to replace two bi-direction sensors or four uni-direction sensors for wrist four direction movements monitoring.

With the increasing demand for lightweight parts, the quality of the inner structure gained growing attention from different kinds of fields. As the quality of the overhanging surface was one of the most important factors affecting inner structure formation, its quality still needs to improve. This paper aims to clarify the change of the overhanging surface quality caused by different bending angles.

The structure of the inner hole was redesigned according to the different performances of the overhanging and side inner surface. The experimental results revealed why different surface qualities can be seen under different bending angles. According to the experimental data, the inner structure was redesigned to increase its overall performance.

The results revealed that when the bending angle was small, the slope of the overhanging surface increased which lead to the decreasing length of the powder-supported layer. However, less space on bending angle resulted in the accumulation of unmelted powder which leads to the increasing of sinking distance. When the bending angle was too large, the slope of the overhanging surface decreased and the length of the molten pool which was supported by powder increased. It resulted in the sinking of the molten pool caused by the gravity of powder and its attachment.

This paper is the first work to study the relationship between bending angle and overhanging surface quality as far as the authors know. The different performances of left and right overhanging surfaces also have not been revealed in other research studies to the best of the knowledge.

When bending a large diameter thin-walled tube, the thickn ess of outer side wall will reduce greatly, which leads to a decrease of structural strength of the tube. To solve this problem, this paper investigated the deformation principles of an eccentric tube in the rotary draw bending process, trying to find a way to reduce the wall thickness difference between inner and outer diameters.

An finite element model is established for analyzing the deformation of an eccentric tube in rotary draw bending process. The wall thickness distribution of the formed pipe was analyzed along the axis and diameter, respectively.

It is found that there exists an optimal eccentricity between the inner and outer circle center of the tube cross-section. If the eccentricity of the tube is chosen properly, it is possible to get a bent tube with equal thickness of inner and outer side walls. In addition, it is also found the optimal eccentricity on the cross-section can be influenced by bending radius, wall thickness, diameter and bending angle. The optimal eccentricity increases greatly with the decreasing of bending radius, the increase of outer diameter and the increase of wall thickness. The influence of bending angle on the optimal eccentricity can be divided into two situations. When the bending angle is small, the optimal eccentricity increases with the increase of bending angle. When the bending angle exceeds a certain value, the pipe enters a stable forming state. The optimal eccentricity of the stable forming region does not change with the bending angle.

Such a research is beneficial for reducing the thickness difference between inner and outer side walls in the rotary draw bending process.

The aim of the paper is to propose a global, automated and continuous curvature calibration strategy for bending sensors, which is used for the angle feedback control of soft fingers.

In this work, the proposed curvature calibration strategy for bending sensors is based on the constant curvature bending properties of soft fingers. The strategy is to install the bending sensor on the soft finger and use the laser distance sensor to assist calibration, then calculate the relationship between the curvature and the voltage of the bending sensor through geometric conversion. In addition, this work also develops a full set of standard calibration systems and collection procedures for the bending sensor curvature calibration and uses machine learning algorithms to fit the collected data.

First, compared with the traditional calibration methods, the proposed curvature calibration strategy can achieve constant curvature measurement with the advantages of better continuity. Second, using the sensor data obtained by the proposed calibration method as the feedback signal for the soft finger bending angle control, the control effect is better than that of the traditional method.

This work proposes and verifies a global, automated and continuous curvature calibration strategy for bending sensors and is used for the angle feedback control of soft fingers. In addition, this work also develops a full set of standard calibration systems and collection procedures, which can be applied to a variety of flexible bending sensors with a good adaptability.

The structural adaptive ability of the soft robot is fully demonstrated in the grasping task of the soft hand. A soft hand can easily realize the envelope operation of the object without planning. With the continuous development of robot applications, researchers are no longer satisfied with the ability of the soft hand to grasp. The purpose of this paper is to perceive the object’s shape while grasping to provide a decision-making basis for more intelligent robot applications.

This paper proposes a dual-signal comparison method to obtain the fingertip position. The dual signal includes the displacement calculated by the static model without considering the external load change and the displacement calculated by the bending sensor. The dual-signal comparison method can use the obvious change trend difference between the above two signals in the hover and contact states to identify the touch position. The authors make the soft hand scan around the object through touch operation to detect the object’s shape, and the tracks of every touch fingertip position can envelop the object’s shape.

The experimental results show that the dual-signal comparison method can accurately identify the contact moment of soft fingers. This detection method makes the soft hand develop the shape detection ability. The soft hand in the experiment can perceive squares, circles and a few other complex shapes.

The dual-signal comparison method proposed in this paper can detect a touch action by using the signal change trend when the working condition suddenly changes with the rough robotic model and sensing, thus improving the utilization value of the measured signal. The problems of large model errors and inaccurate sensors also negatively impact the use of other soft robots. It is generally difficult to achieve good results by directly using these models and sensors with the thinking of rigid robot analysis. The dual-signal comparison method in this paper can provide some reference for this aspect.

This paper aims to present a kinematics analysis method and statics based control of the continuum robot with mortise and tenon joints to achieve better control performance of the robot.

The kinematics model is derived by the geometric analysis method under the piecewise constant curvature assumption, and the workspace and dexterity of the proposed robot are analyzed to optimize its structure parameters. Moreover, the statics model is established by the principle of virtual work, which is used to analyze the mapping relationship between the bending deformation and the applied forces/torques. To improve the control accuracy of the robot, a model-based controller is put forward.

Results of the experiments verify the feasibility of the proposed continuum structure and the correctness of the established model and the control method. The force deviation between the theoretical value and the actual value is relatively small, and the mean value of the deviation between the driving forces is only 0.46 N, which verify the established statics model and the controller.

The proposed model and motion controller can realize its accurate bending control with a few deviations, which can be used as the reference for the motion planning and dynamic model of the continuum robot.

This paper aims to study the influence of significant design parameters of elephant trunk soft pneumatic actuator and presents maximum optimized geometric structure of the actuator using finite element method.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to examine the influence of significant parameters such as wall thickness, bottom layer thickness and gap between adjacent chambers on the performance of the soft actuator. The most influencing parameter is found to be the wall thickness compared to the gap between adjacent chambers and bottom layer thickness.

The optimization of bending moment recommends a wall thickness of 1.5 mm, a gap between the adjacent channels of 1.5 mm and bottom layer thickness of 4 mm for the actuator. The theoretical expression of mechanical parameters is described.

The design optimization of elephant trunk shaped soft actuator with respect to bending angle and force analysis has not been investigated.

Soft actuators using pneumatic-chamber (PneuNet)-based designs have been of interest in the area of soft robotics with scope of application in the area of biomedical assistance and smart agriculture. Researchers have attempted to investigate multiple chambers in parallel to examine their deformation characteristics. However, there is a lacuna for investigation of the deformation characteristics of four parallel chambered soft actuators. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively investigate the different possible actuation scenarios and the resulting bending/deformation behaviours.

Therefore, in this study, a four-chambered PneuNet actuator is numerically investigated to evaluate the effects of pressurization scenarios and pressure levels on its performance, operating reaching and working volume.

The results of this study revealed that two-adjacent chamber equal pressurization and three-chamber pressurizations result in increased bending. However, two-opposite chamber pressurization reduces the bending angle with pressure levels in the lower pressure chamber. The maximum bending angle of 97° was achieved for single-chamber pressurization of 300 kPa. The two-adjacent chamber unequal pressurization can achieve a sweeping motion in the actuator along with bending. The working volume and reaching capability analysis revealed that the actuator can reach around 71% of the dimensional operating space.

The results provide fundamental guidance on the output nature of motion which can be obtained under different pressurization scenarios using the four-chambered design soft actuator, thereby making it a practical guide for implementation for useful applications.

The comprehensive pressurization scenarios and pressure level variations reported in this study will serve as fundamental operating guidelines for any practical implementation of the four-chambered PneuNet actuator.