Electrostatically Driven Kresling Origami Soft Pump

Pneumatic soft robots are becoming a research hotspot because to their high flexibility, compliance, and adaptability, and they typically use external air pumps as their air supply. However, being the “heart” of pneumatic soft robots, these air pumps are extremely large and heavy, inevitably limiting the portability and autonomy of these robots. It is critical to develop lightweight, integrated, and adaptable mobile air pumps. In this study, we propose an electrostatic origami soft pump with a fully flexible structure that addresses the drawbacks of low output flow rate and poor self-priming performance found in previous flexible air pumps. The innovative design of Kresling origami air chamber allows for large-scale compression deformation and self-recovery, which is combined with the advantages of high-power density and fast response of the electrostatic drive to make the origami soft pump efficient, lightweight, and responsive. Only 80 mW of power is required to achieve the 0.98 kPa output air pressure and 14.4 mL/s consistent flow output, providing a viable approach to developing fully flexible integrated air pumps.