Dielectric Elastomer Actuators with Carbon Nanotube Electrodes Painted with a Soft Brush

Shigemune, Hiroki; Sugano, Shigeki; Nishitani, Jun; Yamauchi, Masayuki; Hosoya, Naoki; Hashimoto, Shuji; Maeda, Shingo

doi:10.3390/act7030051

Cited by 51 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…For most DEAs, carbon powders had been widely used as stretchable compliant electrodes for large deformations [47,48,49,50]. Since the compliant electrodes of the pouch of the BSPA remained the same, we exploited commercially available aluminum foil as a compliant electrode in this research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio-Inspired Soft Proboscis Actuator Driven by Dielectric Elastomer Fluid Transducers

Lin

Liu

2019

Polymers

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In recent years, dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) have attracted lots of attention for providing multiple degree-of-freedom motions, such as axial extensions, torsion, bending, and their combinations. The wide applications include soft robots, artificial muscles, and biomimetic animals. In general, DEAs are composed of stretchable elastomers sandwiched by two compliant electrodes and actuated by applying external electric stimuli. Since most DEAs are limited by the breakdown thresholds and low strain-to-volume ratios, dielectric fluid transducers (DFTs) have been developed by substituting dielectric elastomers with dielectric fluids for high breakdown threshold voltages. In addition, DFTs have large rate of lateral extensions, due to their fluid contents, and are beneficial for soft actuators and pumping applications. In this research, we exploited DFTs to develop a soft spiral proboscis actuator inspired by the proboscises of butterflies for achieving uncoiling and coiling motions under external voltages. The bio-inspired spiral proboscis actuator (BSPA) was composed of a coil-shaped tube, a DFT-based pouch, and a spiral spring for mimicking the tubular part, a mechanism to uncoil the tube, and a mechanism to coil the tube, respectively. When applying external voltages to the pouch, the high dielectric fluid was injected into the empty coiled tube for uncoiling where the tube elongated from a compact volume to a stiff and flexible shape. When removing the exciting voltages, the tube retracted to its original coiled shape via the elastic spring. A prototype was designed, fabricated, and examined with high stimulating voltages. It was demonstrated that the proboscis actuator could achieve uncoiling and coiling motions consistently for several cycles. Compared to convection DEA-based pumps with fixed shapes, the proposed actuator is soft and beneficial for portable applications and coiling/uncoiling motions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio-Inspired Soft Proboscis Actuator Driven by Dielectric Elastomer Fluid Transducers

Lin

Liu

2019

Polymers

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“…Michel et al, show that the viscosity in acrylic elastomers can be minimized by pre-straining those (Michel et al, 2009 ). According to an experiment introduced by Shigemune et al, when 2 kV DC voltage was applied to an acrylic elastomer with 300% pre-strain, it took about 3,000 s to relax the strain (Shigemune et al, 2018 ). In our proposed mechanism, the elastomer is fixed with 300% pre-strain, so the viscosity can be kept small.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The actuator displaces to increase folding angle. In this study, the self-assembled actuator is fabricated by brushing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the elastomer part of the 3D structure as proposed in our previous study (Shigemune et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Assembled 3D Actuator Using the Resilience of an Elastomeric Material

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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Self-folding technologies have been studied by many researchers for applications to various engineering fields. Most of the self-folding methods that use the physical properties of materials require complex preparation, and usually take time to complete. In order to solve these problems, we focus on the elasticity of a material, and propose a model for forming a 3D structure using its characteristics. Our proposed model achieves high-speed and high-precision self-folding with a simple structure, by attaching rigid frames to a stretchable elastomer. The self-folded structure is applied to introduce a self-assembled actuator by exploiting a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA). We develop the self-assembled actuator driven with the voltage application by attaching stretchable electrodes on the both side of the elastomer. We attempt several experiments to investigate the basic characteristics of the actuator. We also propose an application of the self-assembled actuator as a gripper based on the experimental results. The gripper has three joints with the angle of 120°, and successfully grabs objects by switching the voltage.

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“…[46] In previous works on DEAs, the compliant electrodes that were usually made of carbon powder or carbon grease did not exhibit optical transparency and high mechanical durability. [47][48][49] However, in recent advances in transparent soft actuators, DEAs are taking most places that guarantee forementioned limiting factors: reliable mechanical property and optical transparency, as the development of transparent compliant electrodes, including ionic conductive hydrogels, [50][51][52] graphene, [53,54] carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [55][56][57] and metal nanowire, [58,59] continues to advance.…”

Section: Transparent Soft Actuators: Deasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transparent Soft Actuators/Sensors and Camouflage Skins for Imperceptible Soft Robotics

et al. 2020

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instruments, and wearable assistive devices, but which mostly are restricted to discrete motions. However, soft robotics with entirely soft bodied system often solve difficulties in conventional rigid robots by overcoming their constraints, exceeding the performances and creating new applications. [1][2][3] Therefore, these soft machines have already taken many roles in industrial processing, automation, marine engineering, etc. [4][5][6] Technological advances in robots and wearable devices are closely connected to optical and mechanical compliance depending on their use. By taking advantages of recent advancements in transparent actuators and sensors, combining their soft and stretchy mechanical compliance with optically transparent property affords to create a new class of soft robotics, which can be referred to as an imperceptible soft robotics (ISR). As shown in Figure 1, systematic diagram of imperceptible soft robotics describes that ISR will mainly consist of transparent systems and camouflage skin. Transparent systems embrace optically transparent soft actuators and sensors in order to build mechanically interactive robotics that are rarely seen by others. As a supportive component, camouflage skin aims to provide for transparent systems to adapt in natural environment or humans for undercover operation and safe user-friendly interactions. This new conception of imperceptible soft robotic system that exhibits optically transparent interface or visually imperceptions through camouflage skin provides new functionalities over ones without such properties. Imperceptions of an assistive wearable device can be crucially important in wearer's daily life. Mechanically compliant and visually imperceptive human assistive device can serve the user's rehabilitation process or support disabled parts in the body without discomfort, altering biomechanics, and obstructive to others. [7] In a similar fashion, robotic prosthetics that requires soft sensing capability of motherly touch for caring babies demand integrated sensors and actuators to be imperceptible. [8] Tactile sensation with an implementation of ISR delivering information to user in private also possesses a wide range of possibility in virtual/augmented reality for human-machine interface and smart-living environment. [9][10][11][12] Undercover mission enabled by disguising into nature through optical transparency or environmentally skin will also be achieved by imperceptibleThe advent of soft robotics has led to great advancements in robots, wear ables, and even manufacturing processes by employing entirely soft-bodied systems that interact safely with any random surfaces while providing great mechanical compliance. Moreover, recent developments in soft robotics involve advances in transparent soft actuators and sensors that have made it possible to construct robots that can function in a visually and mechanically unobstructed manner, assisting the operations of robots and creating more applications in various fields. In this aspect, imperceptible soft robo...

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Dielectric Elastomer Actuators with Carbon Nanotube Electrodes Painted with a Soft Brush

Cited by 51 publications

References 26 publications

Bio-Inspired Soft Proboscis Actuator Driven by Dielectric Elastomer Fluid Transducers

Bio-Inspired Soft Proboscis Actuator Driven by Dielectric Elastomer Fluid Transducers

Self-Assembled 3D Actuator Using the Resilience of an Elastomeric Material

Transparent Soft Actuators/Sensors and Camouflage Skins for Imperceptible Soft Robotics

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