Abstract: In nature, organisms widely use the interaction of muscle contraction and biological pipelines to form an efficient fluid control mechanism. Herein, a pneumatically powered, Bioinspired Soft Switching valve (BSS valve) with short response time and low-energy consumption is described. The BSS valve is composed of flexible walls, a flexible tube and symmetrically arranged Snapping Membrane actuator (SM actuator). It functions based on tube deformation throttling caused by instability of SM actuator membrane. To realize rapid preparation of customized BSS valve, the modular manufacturing method suitable for different materials and structures based on 3D printing and mold forming was developed. Using the membrane flip rate as indicators, the displacement transient response characteristics of three structures actuators were studied, The results proved that spherical and spherical cap membrane SM actuator achieved rapid displacement response under the low critical pressure threshold. Furthermore, with critical buckling pressure and capacity utilization efficiency as indicators, we analyzed the characteristics of SM actuators with different radius and wall thickness to obtain reasonable structural parameters configuration of SM actuators. The influence of radius and thickness on SM actuator is revealed, and theoretical model formulas were formed. Two different configurations are presented. (1) Customized BSS valve structures can achieve sequential motion of flexible gripper. (2) BSS valve embedded in soft pump. The performance tests confirmed it has significant advantages in energy consumption, specific pressure, specific flow, high-frequency cycle load life, and valve can be integrated into the soft pump fluid system as a throttling unit, and provides an idea for fluid drive control integration.

Key words: Bioinspired , · Soft robot , · BSS valve , · SM actuator