A Compact and High-Torque Textile Soft Pneumatic Actuator for Ankle Rehabilitation: Design, Optimization, and Modeling

This paper proposes a novel folded textile soft pneumatic actuator designed to address the critical limitation of insufficient output torque in existing soft wearable ankle rehabilitation robots. Through finite element analysis, a folded structural configuration was selected and optimized to meet the torque requirements quantified via experiments. Furthermore, a mathematical model characterizing the relationship between internal pressure, geometric parameters, and output force was derived and experimentally validated. The results demonstrate that the optimized actuator generates sufficient torque for effective dorsiflexion and plantarflexion training, providing a lightweight and compliant actuator prototype with potential for future ankle rehabilitation applications.