Embedded Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotic Structures: Channel Integrity, Actuation, Fatigue and Control

Embedded pneumatic networks convert pressure into motion through asymmetric chamber deformation, so channel geometry, wall mechanics and pneumatic dynamics must be qualified together. Small amounts of uncured or overcured material can strongly change pressure delivery, while viscoelasticity produces creep and hysteresis in the pressure-motion map and leakage can appear first as control drift. The measurement architecture combines inlet pressure and flow, full-field motion or curvature, blocked force, leak rate under hold pressure and cycle-resolved residual deformation. Static pressure-motion-force maps establish the baseline, after which step-response and fatigue tests separate pneumatic, mechanical and leakage contributions. This evidence defines a safe pressure window and the feedback variable needed to maintain actuator output as the structure ages.

ER-369.