Pneumatically Actuated Material: Exploration of the Morphospace of an Adaptable System of Soft Actuators

This research in progress investigates a design and fabrication method of an adaptable and programmable composite material in an embodied computation system. It develops a workflow for a behavior-based model, the exploration of the morphospace associated with the combinatorial assembly, and the actuation of soft elements. The aggregation of individually actuatable and soft units in a system creates a large potential for adaptability, flexibility, and reconfigurability through a non-rigid and non-mechanical system. The cells are developed through a process of prototyping on origami- and auxetic pattern–inspired soft robotic elements. Every soft cell is pneumatically actuated through a negative pressure environment. The computational simulation is informed by the prototyping process and its findings. The simulation-based design of such an assembled system allows prediction of the aggregated shape and outputs a sequencing table describing the actuation status of every cell, and can create a tool to communicate between material and computational systems.