Premarathna, MMWeerasinghe, RKPeiris, NNKulasekera, ALDassanayake, PCRathnayake, MAdhikariwatte, VHemachandra, K2022-10-272022-10-272022-07M. M. Premarathna, R. K. Weerasinghe, N. N. Peiris, A. L. Kulasekera and P. C. Dassanayake, "Experimental Evaluation of Steering Actuator Configuration on the Behaviour of a Soft Growing Robot," 2022 Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon), 2022, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/MERCon55799.2022.9906266.http://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/19247Soft growing robots are a novel concept that uses fluid flow to increase in length at the tip. Using effective steering mechanisms, soft-growing robots can grow along the desired path. Series pneumatic artificial muscles (sPAMs) are used as steering actuators in contemporary soft-growing robots. This paper presents the experimental evaluation of the effect of the sPAM configuration on the bending of a soft-growing robot. The paper also includes the design and fabrication of the robot body and the sPAMs, the experimental setup, and the analysis of the observed results. The soft-growing robot body and sPAMs are made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The effect of four sPAM configurations (n sPAMs in m groups) on the bending angle and the blocked force is experimentally evaluated. Experimental results show that the bending angle is proportional to the number of sPAMs in a group (Bending angle reduces from 33° to 12° as the number of sPAMs in the group is reduced from 6 to 2). The blocked force applied by the robot tip remains constant over all the tested sPAM configurations. Hence, by varying sPAM configurations, a designer will be able to change the bending angle of a soft-growing robot without affecting tip forces.enArtificial musclesBio-inspired designSoft Robot Materials and DesignVine robotConference-Full-textEngineeringEngineering Research Unit, University of Moratuwa2022Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference 2022Moratuwa, Sri LankaProceedings of Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference 2022170465t@uom.lk170682f@uom.lk170430h@uom.lkasitha@uom.lkpalitha@uom.lk10.1109/MERCon55799.2022.9906266