Muscle-like high-stress dielectric elastomer actuators with oil capsules

Abstract

Ltd. It incorporates referee's comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document.

Inhibiting electro-thermal breakdown of acrylic dielectric elastomer actuators by dielectric gel coating

“…In contrary, immobilized self-clearable compliant electrodes make DEAs more fault tolerant (against pinhole), [19][20][21] whereas oil immersion or coating helps cool down the DEAs, preventing thermal runaway. 10,22,23 If acrylic dielectric elastomer can withstand higher temperature, it could make DEAs tolerate higher leak-induced heating and avoid dielectric puncturing. However, dielectric oil immersion does not help carbon-grease-electroded DEAs because it becomes conductive upon dissolving the conductive grease.…”

Large axial actuation of pre-stretched tubular dielectric elastomer and use of oil encapsulation to enhance dielectric breakdown strength

“…In addition, our dry tubular DEAs sustain a lot higher field of up to 475.9MV/m as compared to the previous ones due to the use of fine immobilized graphite-powder electrodes, which does not short easily as the fluid carbon greases do [16]. The enhanced breakdown strength can improve reliability and extend life time of DEAs.…”

“…In other words, they can produce larger blocked force change. Having the capacity to produce high stress like muscles [16], these oil-encapsulated DEAs are anticipated to be useful for driving the development of future human-like robots.…”

A comparative review of artificial muscles for microsystem applications

“…The circles provide the general ranges corresponding to specific mechanisms according to previous reviews 1 , 7 , 103 , 153 – 155 and some recent research. The data points show the maximum strain and stress ranges reported in the corresponding references: (a) SMA 1 , 156 , 157 and SMP 26 , 158 , 159 ; (b) pneumatic artificial muscles 156 , 160 ; (c) DEAs 1 , 82 , 83 , 161 – 163 ; (d) IPMCs 1 , 4 ; (e) piezoelectric artificial muscles 4 , 156 , 158 ; and (f) soft magnetic artificial muscles 7 , 164 , 165 . Among all the artificial muscles, the pneumatic artificial muscles cover the widest range of low-stress actuators.…”

“… These artificial muscles include SMAs 1 , 156 , 157 and SMPs 26 , 158 , 159 , pneumatic artificial muscles 156 , 160 , DEAs 1 , 82 , 83 , 161 – 163 , IPMCs 1 , 4 , piezoelectric artificial muscles 4 , 156 , 158 , soft magnetic artificial muscles 7 , 164 , 165 …”