Stacked dielectric elastomer actuator for tensile force transmission

Kovács, Gábor; Düring, Lukas; Suéry, M.; Terrasi, Giovanni P.

doi:10.1016/j.sna.2009.08.027

Cited by 345 publications

(272 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Folded actuators 85 mm high and 25 mm wide were produced from folded layers that were 0.5-0.8 mm thick. 62 Kovacs et al 58 (Fig. 12) have developed thin stack actuators using the 3 M VHB 4910 acrylic.…”

Section: Multi-degree-of-freedom De Actuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-functional dielectric elastomer artificial muscles for soft and smart machines

Anderson

Gisby²,

McKay³

et al. 2012

Journal of Applied Physics

564

314

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Dielectric elastomer (DE) actuators are popularly referred to as artificial muscles because their impressive actuation strain and speed, low density, compliant nature, and silent operation capture many of the desirable physical properties of muscle. Unlike conventional robots and machines, whose mechanisms and drive systems rapidly become very complex as the number of degrees of freedom increases, groups of DE artificial muscles have the potential to generate rich motions combining many translational and rotational degrees of freedom. These artificial muscle systems can mimic the agonist-antagonist approach found in nature, so that active expansion of one artificial muscle is taken up by passive contraction in the other. They can also vary their stiffness. In addition, they have the ability to produce electricity from movement. But departing from the high stiffness paradigm of electromagnetic motors and gearboxes leads to new control challenges, and for soft machines to be truly dexterous like their biological analogues, they need precise control. Humans control their limbs using sensory feedback from strain sensitive cells embedded in muscle. In DE actuators, deformation is inextricably linked to changes in electrical parameters that include capacitance and resistance, so the state of strain can be inferred by sensing these changes, enabling the closed loop control that is critical for a soft machine. But the increased information processing required for a soft machine can impose a substantial burden on a central controller. The natural solution is to distribute control within the mechanism itself. The octopus arm is an example of a soft actuator with a virtually infinite number of degrees of freedom (DOF). The arm utilizes neural ganglia to process sensory data at the local “arm” level and perform complex tasks. Recent advances in soft electronics such as the piezoresistive dielectric elastomer switch (DES) have the potential to be fully integrated with actuators and sensors. With the DE switch, we can produce logic gates, oscillators, and a memory element, the building blocks for a soft computer, thus bringing us closer to emulating smart living structures like the octopus arm. The goal of future research is to develop fully soft machines that exploit smart actuation networks to gain capabilities formerly reserved to nature, and open new vistas in mechanical engineering.

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Section: Multi-degree-of-freedom De Actuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-functional dielectric elastomer artificial muscles for soft and smart machines

Anderson

Gisby²,

McKay³

et al. 2012

Journal of Applied Physics

564

314

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Carpi et al (2005) designed a contractile DE actuator of helical stack configuration, which was capable of 5% strain under an electric field of 14 V per μm. Alternatively, Kovacs et al (2009) produced an actuator by pile-up of folded actuators, which were 85 mm high and 25 mm wide containing layers 0.5-0.8 mm thick. The contractile motion of the stacked configuration makes it practically suitable for light, compliant, and flexible systems for noise-free actuation.…”

Section: Propertymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanics of dielectric elastomers: materials, structures, and devices

Qian

2016

JZUS-A

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Dielectric elastomers (DEs) respond to applied electric voltage with a surprisingly large deformation, showing a promising capability to generate actuation in mimicking natural muscles. A theoretical foundation of the mechanics of DEs is of crucial importance in designing DE-based structures and devices. In this review, we survey some recent theoretical and numerical efforts in exploring several aspects of electroactive materials, with emphases on the governing equations of electromechanical coupling, constitutive laws, viscoelastic behaviors, electromechanical instability as well as actuation applications. An overview of analytical models is provided based on the representative approach of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, with computational analyses being required in more generalized situations such as irregular shape, complex configuration, and time-dependent deformation. Theoretical efforts have been devoted to enhancing the working limits of DE actuators by avoiding electromechanical instability as well as electric breakdown, and pre-strains are shown to effectively avoid the two failure modes. These studies lay a solid foundation to facilitate the use of DE materials, structures, and devices in a wide range of applications such as biomedical devices, adaptive systems, robotics, energy harvesting, etc.

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“…Other thoughtfully designed types of actuators (driven by electricity, temperature, and other means) have also been developed to mimic properties of the muscle. [27,[31][32][33] Actuators that operate based on negative pressure (vacuum) have been less explored than those using positive pressure, although they have two advantages: i) they cannot burst (nor can they "implode", as the actuation stops when the pneumatic chambers collapse to their minimum volume); ii) their volume decreases on application of vacuum (which allows them to function better in cluttered or space-constrained environments than actuators using positive pressure). Jaeger et al described an example of this type of actuator, in which application of vacuum to an elastomeric bag filled with a granular solid caused jamming; this jamming increased the stiffness of the bag and its contents, and allowed gripping.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Buckling Pneumatic Linear Actuators Inspired by Muscle

Yang

Verma

et al. 2016

Adv Materials Technologies

253

188

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The mechanical features of biological muscles are difficult to reproduce completely in synthetic systems. A new class of soft pneumatic structures (vacuum‐actuated muscle‐inspired pneumatic structures) is described that combines actuation by negative pressure (vacuum), with cooperative buckling of beams fabricated in a slab of elastomer, to achieve motion and demonstrate many features that are similar to that of mammalian muscle.

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Stacked dielectric elastomer actuator for tensile force transmission

Cited by 345 publications

References 10 publications

Multi-functional dielectric elastomer artificial muscles for soft and smart machines

Multi-functional dielectric elastomer artificial muscles for soft and smart machines

Mechanics of dielectric elastomers: materials, structures, and devices

Buckling Pneumatic Linear Actuators Inspired by Muscle

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