Fabric Soft Pneumatic Actuators with Programmable Turing Pattern Textures

Abstract Turing patterns, a concept derived from Alan Turing's work on morphogenesis and patterns, can be found in nature at multiple spatial scales, such as lizard skin, fish skins, and sand dunes. Readers might also find the application of Turing pattern used into textile industry, where an element of uniqueness and artistic expression is preferred for the user experience. However, commercially available Turing patterns from this industry do not yet demonstrate advanced functionality. This research introduces a fabric based soft pneumatic actuators (FSPAs) based on textile material from advanced computational design and fabrication method, where different actuation motion of FSPAs are achieved driving by programmable Turing patterns. The proposed method designs and fine-tunes the geometric pattern of a reinforcement sheet embedded into a stretchable, unstructured fabric. In this study, this embedding is achieved through two techniques: heat bonding and embroidery. Through these approaches, the local deformation of the surface membrane can be precisely programmed, allowing for controlled global shaping of the inflatable structure. By leveraging commonly used fabrication methods in the fashion industry, the shape-morphing inflatable structure can be realized using lightweight fabric materials on a large scale. These techniques are anticipated to impact the design and fabrication of shape-morphing inflatable structures for future applications, such as architectural arches or emergency shelters, in an easy and cost-effective manner.