A Modular Dielectric Elastomer Actuator to Drive Miniature Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Berlinger, Florian; Duduta, Mihai; Gloria, Hudson; Clarke, David R.; Nagpal, Radhika; Wood, Robert J.

doi:10.1109/icra.2018.8461217

Cited by 60 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The marine environment has long been a deep well of bioinspiration for previously unexplored materials and structures (1)(2)(3), cutting-edge medical treatments (4,5), and biomimetic manipulators and locomotors (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). However, it is less common for these inventions to have practical applications toward the biology and ecology of the animals from which they are inspired.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultragentle manipulation of delicate structures using a soft robotic gripper

et al. 2019

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Here, we present ultragentle soft robotic actuators capable of grasping delicate specimens of gelatinous marine life. Although state-of-the-art soft robotic manipulators have demonstrated gentle gripping of brittle animals (e.g., corals) and echinoderms (e.g., sea cucumbers) in the deep sea, they are unable to nondestructively grasp more fragile soft-bodied organisms, such as jellyfish. Through an exploration of design parameters and laboratory testing of individual actuators, we confirmed that our nanofiber-reinforced soft actuators apply sufficiently low contact pressure to ensure minimal harm to typical jellyfish species. We then built a gripping device using several actuators and evaluated its underwater grasping performance in the laboratory. By assessing the gripper’s region of acquisition and robustness to external forces, we gained insight into the necessary precision and speed with which grasping maneuvers must be performed to achieve successful collection of samples. Last, we demonstrated successful manipulation of three live jellyfish species in an aquarium setting using a hand-held prototype gripper. Overall, our ultragentle gripper demonstrates an improvement in gentle sample collection compared with existing deep-sea sampling devices. Extensions of this technology may improve a variety of in situ characterization techniques used to study the ecological and genetic features of deep-sea organisms.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultragentle manipulation of delicate structures using a soft robotic gripper

et al. 2019

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“…Using the model, the natural frequency of the robot is calculated with a fixed head boundary condition and compared with the experimental result. The bimorph configuration of a DEA is also used in an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) [116]. In this robot, all components such as a battery, power converter, and controller are included in the robot so that the robot is untethered and stand-alone.…”

Section: Swimming Robotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dielectric Elastomer Actuator for Soft Robotics Applications and Challenges

et al. 2020

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This paper reviews state-of-the-art dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) and their future perspectives as soft actuators which have recently been considered as a key power generation component for soft robots. This paper begins with the introduction of the working principle of the dielectric elastomer actuators. Because the operation of DEA includes the physics of both mechanical viscoelastic properties and dielectric characteristics, we describe theoretical modeling methods for the DEA before introducing applications. In addition, the design of artificial muscles based on DEA is also introduced. This paper reviews four popular subjects for the application of DEA: soft robot hand, locomotion robots, wearable devices, and tunable optical components. Other potential applications and challenging issues are described in the conclusion.

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“…Bimorph benders were used to create various fins/tails (Berlinger et al 2018). The thrust force was increased by stacking multiple layers for each unimorph half of the bimorph structure, while the actuated shape of the structure was varied by constraining the deformation along predefined directions via carbon fibres (i.e., the same approach described above for a gripper).…”

Section: Robotic Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Electromechanically Active Polymer-Based Robotics

Carpi¹,

Coppola²,

Franco³

et al. 2020

Encyclopedia of Robotics

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Electromechanically active polymers are smart materials that can be used for actuation with biomimetic properties. Overview Electromechanically Active Polymers (EAPs) are "smart materials" that exhibit a mechanical response (deformation/force) to an electrical stimulus (Bar-Cohen 2004; Carpi 2016; Carpi and Smela 2009). They are referred to as "artificial muscle materials," as they can emulate the main functional properties of natural muscles, in that they can combine biomimetic motion with selfsensing ability and variable stiffness operation. They also show additional attractive properties, such as light weight, mechanical compliance, compact size, simple structure, low power consumption, acoustically silent operation, and low cost. Among the various types of EAPs available (Carpi 2016; Carpi and Smela 2009), this chapter focuses on the special kind known as "dielectric elastomers" (DEs)

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A Modular Dielectric Elastomer Actuator to Drive Miniature Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Cited by 60 publications

References 22 publications

Ultragentle manipulation of delicate structures using a soft robotic gripper

Ultragentle manipulation of delicate structures using a soft robotic gripper

Dielectric Elastomer Actuator for Soft Robotics Applications and Challenges

Bioinspired Electromechanically Active Polymer-Based Robotics

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