An antagonistic variable-stiffness pneumatic flexible joint.

This paper develops an antagonistic variable-stiffness pneumatic flexible joint in which two groups of artificial muscles are symmetrically distributed on both sides of the elastic thin plate. The elastic thin plate restricts the axial movement of the joint. Therefore, the joint can achieve single-dimensional and bidirectional bending by controlling the air pressure value of the pneumatic artificial muscle. Two variable stiffness elastic dampers are also symmetrically installed on both sides of the elastic thin plate, using a positive-pressure driving method to achieve real-time posture maintenance function of the joint based on particle-blockage, wedge structure, and antagonistic effect. The mathematical models for the bending angle and stiffness of flexible joints were established, and relevant experiments were conducted. When the air pressure of the pneumatic artificial muscle is 0.32 MPa, the joint bending angle reaches 62.7°. When the bending angle is 60° and the air pressure of the variable-stiffness elastic damper is 0.5 MPa, the stiffness in the bending direction of the flexible joint with the variable-stiffness elastic damper is 6.9 times that of the flexible joint without the variable-stiffness elastic damper, and the stiffness in the reverse bending direction is 10.3 times that of the flexible joint without the variable-stiffness elastic damper under the same conditions.