Stacked dielectric elastomer actuator (SDEA): casting process, modeling and active vibration isolation

Li, Zhuoyuan; Sheng, Meiping; Wang, Qingwen; Dong, Pengfei; Li, Bo; Chen, Hualing

doi:10.1088/1361-665x/aabea5

Cited by 33 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The actuation strain values observed for the actuators fabricated in this study range from 0.4 to 1.0% in an electric field of ∼20 V/μm. These numbers are noticeably small compared to those of stacked DEAs fabricated by other methods: 46% at ∼50 V/μm (Kovacs et al, 2009), 24% at 150 V/μm (Duduta et al, 2019), 15.5% at ∼12 V/μm (Carpi et al, 2007), 9% at 25 V/μm (Chortos et al, 2020), and 4.5% at ∼13 V/μm (Li et al, 2018). There are two main reasons behind this.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Therefore, multiple sets of the membranes and electrodes are stacked to yield useful actuation strokes in the thickness direction, like a muscle. Previous studies have presented various methods for fabricating stacked DEAs where the dielectric and electrode layers are alternately staked ( Kovacs et al, 2009 ; Matysek et al, 2011 ; Ji et al, 2019 ), blade-casted ( Li et al, 2018 ), spin coated ( Lotz et al, 2011 ; Duduta et al, 2019 ), printed ( Araromi et al, 2011 ; Reitelshöfer et al, 2016 ; McCoul et al, 2017 ; Chortos et al, 2020 ), or folded together ( Carpi et al, 2007 ; Nguyen et al, 2014 ). However, these fabrication methods often require a dedicated setup with complicated processes or sometimes require laborious manual stacking of the layers, which may increase the failure rate of the actuators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

et al. 2021

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Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are a promising actuator technology for soft robotics. As a configuration of this technology, stacked DEAs afford a muscle-like contraction that is useful to build soft robotic systems. In stacked DEAs, dielectric and electrode layers are alternately stacked. Thus, often a dedicated setup with complicated processes or sometimes laborious manual stacking of the layers is required to fabricate stacked actuators. In this study, we propose a method to monolithically fabricate stacked DEAs without alternately stacking the dielectric and electrode layers. In this method, the actuators are fabricated mainly through two steps: 1) molding of an elastomeric matrix containing free-form microfluidic channels and 2) injection of a liquid conductive material that acts as an electrode. The feasibility of our method is investigated via the fabrication and characterization of simple monolithic DEAs with multiple electrodes (2, 4, and 10). The fabricated actuators are characterized in terms of actuation stroke, output force, and frequency response. In the actuators, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and eutectic gallium–indium (EGaIn) are used for the elastomeric matrix and electrode material, respectively. Microfluidic channels are realized by dissolving a three-dimensional printed part suspended in the elastomeric structure. The experimental results show the successful implementation of the proposed method and the good agreement between the measured data and theoretical predication, validating the feasibility of the proposed method.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

et al. 2021

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“…In the field of DE, one of the main goals is to develop highperformance DEAs. Based on the working principle, various configurations of DEAs are designed for extensive applications, such as planar, [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] multilayer stacked, [26,27,[67][68][69][70][71] folded, [72,73] rolled, [24,[74][75][76][77][78] diamond, [79][80][81] bending, [82][83][84][85][86] zipping, [87] balloon, [22,23,[88][89][90][91][92][93] cone-shaped, [94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101] hinge, [102...…”

Section: Configurations Of Typical Deasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators and Their Applications in Soft Robots

Guo

Liu

et al. 2021

Advanced Intelligent Systems

165

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Robots play an increasingly important role in industrial production and daily life. Traditional robots are mostly made of hard materials, such as metal and plastic. Although rigidity of the material enables the traditional robot to perform tasks that are difficult for humans, for instance, carrying heavy objects, it also limits its adaptability. In nature, animals and plants are mostly made of soft materials, which make them have very high compliance and realize a variety of unimaginable actions. Similar to natural creatures, soft robots are usually composed of soft stimuli-responsive materials, which make them have good adaptability and compliance, and can achieve large deformation.Triggered by external stimuli, such as electric fields, magnetic fields, heat, and light, these soft stimuli-responsive materials can deform in a specific direction. The soft stimuli-responsive materials commonly used in soft robots include electroactive polymers (EAP), [1][2][3] hydrogels, [4][5][6][7] magnetic materials, [8][9][10] shape memory polymers (SMP), [11][12][13] shape memory alloys (SMA), [14,15] liquid crystal elastomers (LCE), [16][17][18] and so on. In addition, other actuation methods, such as pneumatic inflation and [19] electrostatic, [20,21] are also widely used in soft robots. To have an overview of different actuation methods, their performances with the maximum values are shown in Table 1. Although these maximum values were obtained from different actuators for each actuation method, they still demonstrate the potential upper limit.Dielectric elastomer (DE) is a typical EAP, which can generate significant deformation under the action of an external electric field. Thanks to its characteristics, such as large deformation, [22,23] fast response, [24,25] low elastic modulus, [2] high energy density, [26,27] light weight, [28,29] and low cost, [28] DE has the reputation of artificial muscles and has become one of the most promising materials in soft robots. [30][31][32][33][34] In this Review, we concentrate on the recent progresses of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) and their application in soft robots. In Section 2, we first introduce the working principle of DEAs, followed by the DE materials and compliant electrodes. Then, various DEAs with different designs are introduced. In Section 3, the application of DEAs in soft robots is divided into seven categories. Some recent highlights are described and discussed in detail, especially those with biological inspiration. We summarize some of the challenges in Section 4 and this is followed with the conclusion in Section 5. Dielectric Elastomer Actuators Working PrincipleGenerally, the structure of a DEA is similar to a sandwich, consisting of a DE membrane, where both surfaces are coated with compliant electrodes, as shown in Figure 1a. Once the compliant electrodes are subjected to voltage, an electric field will be generated in the membrane. The induced Maxwell stress causes the membrane to expand its area and contract its thickness. Based on the mechanism of ...

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“…Besides that, one of the unique properties of DEAP is that it can be formed in any complex shapes and still provide actuation. Li et al (2018) fabricated stacked dielectric elastomer actuator to enhance the homogenous and reproducible properties of the actuator. Hau et al (2016) described how to establish DEAP membrane actuators to become high force actuator that can be pushed to the high double-digit Newton range and beyond.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electromechanical Characteristics of Core Free Folded Dielectric Electro-active Polymer Soft Actuator

Wahab¹,

Anuar²,

Hadi³

2021

JST

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This paper investigates the active dynamic and electromechanical characteristics of a new thin folded dielectric electro-active polymer actuator developed by Danfoss PolyPower. The high voltage is supplied to the actuator during dynamic testing to identified the effect of the electrical field on dynamic characteristics. The electromechanical characteristics are investigated by varying the amplitude and frequency of the voltage supplied. The experimental results, such as natural frequency, amplitude response, and loss factor are presented to show the influence of such an electrical field on the characteristic of the actuator. There is a reduction of resonance frequency from 14 Hz to 12 Hz as voltage supply up to 2000 V. The actuating response of the actuator was subjected more to frequency rather than the amplitude of the voltage supplied. Hence, the results may guide the exploration of a new folded thin actuator as an active vibration controller.

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Stacked dielectric elastomer actuator (SDEA): casting process, modeling and active vibration isolation

Cited by 33 publications

References 31 publications

Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Review of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators and Their Applications in Soft Robots

Electromechanical Characteristics of Core Free Folded Dielectric Electro-active Polymer Soft Actuator

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