A finite element model of rigid body structures actuated by dielectric elastomer actuators

Simone, Filomena; Linnebach, Philipp; Rizzello, Gianluca; Seelecke, Stefan

doi:10.1088/1361-665x/aabe08

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…ABAQUS achieves this coupling using a UMAT subroutine [160,[163][164][165] while it can be defined as a multiphysics field in COMSOL. [166][167][168] Increasingly accurate models for DEAs are being developed by including the effects of material viscoelasticity and the rate of heat generation due to viscoelastic dissipation. [169] Including the effect of electrode resistance could improve simulations of the dynamics of DEAs.…”

Section: Open-loop Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control Strategies for Soft Robot Systems

Wang

Chortos

2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Soft robots have recently attracted increased attention because their characteristics of low‐cost fabrication, durability, and deformability make them uniquely suited for applications in bio‐integrated systems. Being fundamentally different from traditional rigid robots, soft robots exhibit properties of infinite degrees of freedom (DOF) and nonlinear materials properties that require innovations in control systems. With the rapid development of materials science, robotics, and artificial intelligence, the diversification of actuator mechanisms and algorithms has enabled a wide range of unique control strategies. This review summarizes the basics of actuator mechanisms and control strategies, including open‐loop control, closed‐loop control, and autonomous control, and discusses their implementation from diversified perspectives. Control strategies are evaluated based on their compatibility with materials sets, application goals, and implementation route. The emerging directions are forecasted from the perspectives of interfacing between controller and actuator, underactuated control strategies, and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI).

show abstract

Section: Open-loop Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control Strategies for Soft Robot Systems

Wang

Chortos

2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In order to overcome this limit, many DE layers can be stacked in order to increase the overall force. The stacking process for membrane DEAs has already been studied in earlier literature, see, e.g., [21]. Therefore, to improve our design, a further DE membrane is added in parallel with the first one, forming a double layer stack of membranes.…”

Section: De Valve Drive Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and experimental characterization of a pneumatic valve actuated by a dielectric elastomer membrane

Hill

Rizzello

Seelecke

2017

Smart Mater. Struct.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to their many features including lightweight and low energy consumption, dielectric elastomer (DE) membrane actuators are of interest for a number of industrial applications, such as pumping systems or valve control units. In particular, the use of DEs in valve control units offers advantages over traditional solenoid valves, including lower power requirements and relative simplicity in achieving proportional control. Additionally, DEs generate low thermal dissipation and are capable of virtually silent operation. The contribution of this work is the development of a new valve system based on a circular DE membrane pre-loaded with a linear spring. The valve is designed for pressurized air and operates by actuating a lever mechanism that opens and closes an outlet port. After presenting the operating principle and system design, several experiments are presented to compare actuator force, stroke, and dissipated energy for several pressure differentials and associated volume flows. It is observed that the DE-driven valve achieves a performance similar to a solenoid-based valve, while requiring a significantly lower amount of input energy. In addition, it is shown that DE-membrane valves can be controlled proportionally by simply adjusting the actuator voltage.

show abstract

“…Among them, the finite element (FE) method is among the most promising ones. Due to their ability to perform accurate structural simulations and address coupled problems involving large deformations, FE methods have been extensively used to analyze DE systems, see, e.g., [34][35][36][37][38]. The vast majority of the FE models presented so far, however, focused on simple (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finite element modeling and validation of a soft array of spatially coupled dielectric elastomer transducers

Croce

Neu

Moretti

et al. 2022

Smart Mater. Struct.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dielectric elastomer (DE) transducers are suitable candidates for the development of compliant mechatronic devices, such as wearable smart skins and soft robots. If many independently-controllable DEs are closely arranged in an array-like configuration, sharing a common elastomer membrane, novel types of cooperative and soft actuator/sensor systems can be obtained. The common elastic substrate, however, introduces strong electro-mechanical coupling effects among neighborg DEs, which highly influence the overall membrane system actuation and sensing characteristics. To effectively design soft cooperative systems based on DEs, these effects need to be systematically understood and modeled first. As a first step towards the development of soft cooperative DE systems, in this paper we present a finite element (FE) simulation approach for a 1-by-3 silicone array of DE units. After defining the system constitutive equations and the numerical assumptions, an externsive experimental campaign is conducted to calibrate and validate the model. The simulations results accurately predict the changes in force (actuation behavior) and capacitance (sensing behavior) of the different elements of the array, when their neighbors are subjected to different electro-mechanical loads. Quantitatively, the model reproduces the force and capacitance responses with an average fit higher than 93% and 92%, respectively. Finally, the validated model is used to perform parameter studies, aimed at highlighting how the array performance depends on a relevant set of design parameters, i.e., DE-DE spacing, DE-outer structure spacing, membrane pre-stretch, array scale, and electrode shape. The obtained results will provide important guidelines for the future design of cooperative actuator/sensor systems based on DE transducers.

show abstract

A finite element model of rigid body structures actuated by dielectric elastomer actuators

Cited by 8 publications

References 34 publications

Control Strategies for Soft Robot Systems

Control Strategies for Soft Robot Systems

Development and experimental characterization of a pneumatic valve actuated by a dielectric elastomer membrane

Finite element modeling and validation of a soft array of spatially coupled dielectric elastomer transducers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About