Because the deformation of soft-robotic pneumatic (or hydraulic) actuators is difficult to intuitively predict appears to be a fitting area for topology optimization including a simulation of the behavior upon applying pressure or flow.
This thesis is about developing a program that takes as input a polygonal or tetrahedral mesh of the outer-shape of an actuator that one would want to develop, the desired trajectory of certain vertices and some boundary conditions like the final pressure, the material properties, etc. and then generates and optimizes the shape of a cavity inside the mesh to move the actuator along the desired trajectory when applying pressure. The physical simulation will be verified using COMSOL. Ideally, the resulting actuator should be 3D-printable and work as intended.