Dielectric Elastomer Based “Grippers” for Soft Robotics

Shian, Samuel; Bertoldi, Katia; Clarke, David R.

doi:10.1002/adma.201503078

Cited by 421 publications

(277 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(19 reference statements)

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“…A rolled elastomer design reported in References [32,33] was able to bend in many directions, therefore presenting a good candidate for surgical or mobile robotics use. Another common approach to manipulate the surface deformation in DEAPs to harvest the stroke/force in the desired orientation is to use fiber strands in various geometrical lay-outs [34]. These fiber surfaces can be arranged in micro-scale and the diamond shape areas can be customized to obtain the better result in actuation output using the angle between intersecting fibers [10].…”

Section: Optimal Geometry In Deapmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Novel Actuators for Soft Robotics

2018

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In this systematic survey, an overview of non-conventional actuators particularly used in soft-robotics is presented. The review is performed by using well-defined performance criteria with a direction to identify the exemplary and potential applications. In addition to this, initial guidelines to compare the performance and applicability of these novel actuators are provided. The meta-analysis is restricted to five main types of actuators: shape memory alloys (SMAs), fluidic elastomer actuators (FEAs), shape morphing polymers (SMPs), dielectric electro-activated polymers (DEAPs), and magnetic/electro-magnetic actuators (E/MAs). In exploring and comparing the capabilities of these actuators, the focus was on eight different aspects: compliance, topology-geometry, scalability-complexity, energy efficiency, operation range, modality, controllability, and technological readiness level (TRL). The overview presented here provides a state-of-the-art summary of the advancements and can help researchers to select the most convenient soft actuators using the comprehensive comparison of the suggested quantitative and qualitative criteria.

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Section: Optimal Geometry In Deapmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Novel Actuators for Soft Robotics

2018

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“…The electroadhesion force also enables the picking up of flat and deformable objects. The gripper can be controlled only by a single control voltage thanks to the simple, compliant composite structure, similar in overall concept to [15,[19][20][21][22][23][24] . These features lead to a highlyintegrated, multifunctional conformal soft gripper with fast motion (~100 ms to close fingers), high holding force and simplified structure and control, paving a way for sensitive, highly versatile grippers for soft robotics.…”

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confidence: 99%

Versatile Soft Grippers with Intrinsic Electroadhesion Based on Multifunctional Polymer Actuators

et al. 2015

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“…Actuation strains greater than 100% (Ref. 1) and sub-ms response time 2 can be achieved with DEAs, which find applications in a wide range of fields including soft-robotics, [3][4][5] optics, 2,6,7 and microfluidics. [8][9][10] DEAs are well suited to miniaturisation, as power density is high, 1 and complex shapes and systems can be made using simple architectures.…”

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confidence: 99%

Printing low-voltage dielectric elastomer actuators

Poulin

Rosset

Shea

2015

Applied Physics Letters

136

126

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We demonstrate the fabrication of fully printed thin dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), reducing the operation voltage below 300 V while keeping good actuation strain. DEAs are soft actuators capable of strains greater than 100% and response times below 1 ms, but they require driving voltage in the kV range, limiting the possible applications. One way to reduce the driving voltage of DEAs is to decrease the dielectric membrane thickness, which is typically in the 20–100 μm range, as reliable fabrication becomes challenging below this thickness. We report here the use of pad-printing to produce μm thick silicone membranes, on which we pad-print μm thick compliant electrodes to create DEAs. We achieve a lateral actuation strain of 7.5% at only 245 V on a 3 μm thick pad-printed membrane. This corresponds to a ratio of 125%/kV2, by far the highest reported value for DEAs. To quantify the increasing stiffening impact of the electrodes on DEA performance as the membrane thickness decreases, we compare two circular actuators, one with 3 μm- and one with 30 μm-thick membranes. Our experimental measurements show that the strain uniformity of the 3 μm-DEA is indeed affected by the mechanical impact of the electrodes. We developed a simple DEA model that includes realistic electrodes of finite stiffness, rather than assuming zero stiffness electrodes as is commonly done. The simulation results confirm that the stiffening impact of the electrodes is an important parameter that should not be neglected in the design of thin-DEAs. This work presents a practical approach towards low-voltage DEAs, a critical step for the development of real world applications.

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Dielectric Elastomer Based “Grippers” for Soft Robotics

Cited by 421 publications

References 23 publications

An Overview of Novel Actuators for Soft Robotics

An Overview of Novel Actuators for Soft Robotics

Versatile Soft Grippers with Intrinsic Electroadhesion Based on Multifunctional Polymer Actuators

Printing low-voltage dielectric elastomer actuators

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