A Super-Lightweight and Soft Manipulator Driven by Dielectric Elastomers

Xing, Zhiguang; Zhang, Junming; McCoul, David; Cui, Yanzhen; Sun, Lining; Zhao, Jianwen

doi:10.1089/soro.2018.0134

Cited by 63 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…They exhibit fast, efficient shape‐morphing behavior by converting electrical to mechanical energy using electrostatic forces to deform soft capacitive elements. [ 25,26 ] [ 8,27–29 ] To date, most DEAs have been fabricated in planar motifs, such as prestretched elastomer membranes sandwiched between compliant electrodes. [ 25,30 ] While planar DEAs can be fabricated using high‐throughput roll‐to‐roll manufacturing [ 31 ] or automated sequential stacking processes, [ 32 ] these methods do not allow complex 3D architectures to be realized.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Printing Reconfigurable Bundles of Dielectric Elastomer Fibers

Chortos

Mao

Mueller

et al. 2021

Adv Funct Materials

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Active soft materials that change shape on demand are of interest for a myriad of applications, including soft robotics, biomedical devices, and adaptive systems. Despite recent advances, the ability to rapidly design and fabricate active matter in complex, reconfigurable layouts remains challenging. Here, the 3D printing of core-sheath-shell dielectric elastomer fibers (DEF) and fiber bundles with programmable actuation is reported. Complex shape morphing responses are achieved by printing individually addressable fibers within 3D architectures, including vertical coils and fiber bundles. These DEF devices exhibit resonance frequencies up to 700 Hz and lifetimes exceeding 2.6 million cycles. The multimaterial, multicore-shell 3D printing method opens new avenues for creating active soft matter with fast programable actuation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Printing Reconfigurable Bundles of Dielectric Elastomer Fibers

Chortos

Mao

Mueller

et al. 2021

Adv Funct Materials

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“…In the next years, the research promises new materials for a new generation of robots, i.e., smart materials for soft robots, which will be able to add new features and capacities to robotics. The new materials can be hard, as piezomaterials [33]; flexible, as in alloys with shape memory; soft, as in dielectric elastomers [34]; or even fluid, as in ferrofluids and electrorheological fluids, which change their shape in front of electrical fields [35]. The idea of deploying soft robots in industry is not new, although the term has evolved with the latest developments in robotics.…”

Section: New Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robots in Industry: The Past, Present, and Future of a Growing Collaboration With Humans

Grau

Indri

Bello

et al. 2021

EEE Ind. Electron. Mag.

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“…apply [33], where • := [•] out − [•] in and q I denotes the density of free surface charges at the interface ∂B I . Due to the fact that the influence of the surrounding space is neglected in this contribution, the electrical conditions at the outer boundary ∂B M = ∂B can be expressed as (5) with the density of free charges q M at the outer boundary ∂B q t . Regarding the continuity of the scalar electric potential φ on the interface ∂B I , the following condition applies:…”

Section: Electro-mechanics Of Deformable Continuamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, they are capable of exhibiting large strains, where strains up to more than 300% are observed in some types of EAP [2]. Being motivated by the aforementioned properties, several prototypes of soft artificial muscles and soft robotics have been mainly hinged on EAP; see for example [3][4][5]. DEA is a type of EAP that shows electrostrictive behavior [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the computational modelling of nonlinear electro-elasticity in heterogeneous bodies at finite deformations

Kanan

Kaliske

2021

Mech Soft Mater

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Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) have been demonstrated to exhibit a quasi-immediate electro-mechanical actuation response with relatively large deformation capability. The properties of DEA make them suitable to be used in the form of major active components within soft robotics and biomimetic artificial muscles. However, some of the electro-active material properties impose limitations on its applications. Therefore, researchers attempt to modify the structure of the homogeneous DEA material by the incorporation of fillers that possess distinct electro-mechanical properties. This modification of the material’s structure leads to a fabricated inhomogeneous composite. From the point of mathematical material modelling and numerical simulation, we propose a material model and a computational framework using the finite element method, which is capable of emulating nonlinear electro-elastic interactions. We consider a coupled electro-mechanical description with the electric and the electro-mechanical properties of the material assumed to be nonlinearly dependent on the deformation. Furthermore, we demonstrate a coupled ansatz that expresses the electric response as dielectrically quasi-linear with only density-dependent electric permittivity. We couple the electro-mechanical models to the extended tube model, which is a suitable approach for the realistic emulation of the hyperelastic response of rubber-like materials. Thereafter, we demonstrate analytical and numerical solutions of a homogeneous electro-elastic body with the Neo-Hookean material model and the extended tube model to express the hyperelastic response. Finally, we use the finite element method to investigate several heterogeneous configurations consisting of soft DEA matrix filled with spherical stiff inclusions with changing volume fraction and ellipsoidal inclusions with varying aspect ratio.

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A Super-Lightweight and Soft Manipulator Driven by Dielectric Elastomers

Cited by 63 publications

References 28 publications

Printing Reconfigurable Bundles of Dielectric Elastomer Fibers

Printing Reconfigurable Bundles of Dielectric Elastomer Fibers

Robots in Industry: The Past, Present, and Future of a Growing Collaboration With Humans

On the computational modelling of nonlinear electro-elasticity in heterogeneous bodies at finite deformations

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