A number of materials have been explored for their use as artificial muscles Among these, dielectric elastomers (DEs) appear to provide the best combination of properties for true muscle-like actuation DEs behave as compliant capacitors, expanding in area and shrinking in thickness when a voltage is applied Materials combining very high energy densities, strains, and efficiencies have been known for some time To date, however, the widespread adoption of DEs has been hindered by premature breakdown and the requirement for high voltages and bulky support frames Recent advances seem poised to remove these restrictions and allow for the production of highly reliable, high-performance transducers for artificial muscle applications

Advances in dielectric elastomers for actuators and artificial muscles.

Advances in soft robotics, materials science, and stretchable electronics have enabled rapid progress in soft grippers. Here, a critical overview of soft robotic grippers is presented, covering different material sets, physical principles, and device architectures. Soft gripping can be categorized into three technologies, enabling grasping by: a) actuation, b) controlled stiffness, and c) controlled adhesion. A comprehensive review of each type is presented. Compared to rigid grippers, end-effectors fabricated from flexible and soft components can often grasp or manipulate a larger variety of objects. Such grippers are an example of morphological computation, where control complexity is greatly reduced by material softness and mechanical compliance. Advanced materials and soft components, in particular silicone elastomers, shape memory materials, and active polymers and gels, are increasingly investigated for the design of lighter, simpler, and more universal grippers, using the inherent functionality of the materials. Embedding stretchable distributed sensors in or on soft grippers greatly enhances the ways in which the grippers interact with objects. Challenges for soft grippers include miniaturization, robustness, speed, integration of sensing, and control. Improved materials, processing methods, and sensing play an important role in future research.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/adma.201707035

Soft Robotic Grippers.

This paper reviews the developments in dielectric elastomer actuator technology for several applications. Dielectric elastomers are a variety of electroactive polymer that deform due to the electrostatic interaction between two electrodes with opposite electric charge. Dielectric elastomers have been subject of much interest and research over the past decade. In earlier years, much of the focus was on actuator configurations, and in more recent years the focus has turned to investigating material properties that may enhance actuator performance. This review outlines the operating principle and actuation mechanisms behind this actuator technology, highlights some of its advantages over existing actuator technologies, identifies some of the challenges associated with its development, and examines the main focus of research within this field, including some of the potential applications of such an actuator technology.

A review on dielectric elastomer actuators, technology, applications, and challenges

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.

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

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are flexible lightweight actuators that can generate strains of over 100 %. They are used in applications ranging from haptic feedback (mm-sized devices), to cm-scale soft robots, to meter-long blimps. DEAs consist of an electrode-elastomer-electrode stack, placed on a frame. Applying a voltage between the electrodes electrostatically compresses the elastomer, which deforms in-plane or out-of plane depending on design. Since the electrodes are bonded to the elastomer, they must reliably sustain repeated very large deformations while remaining conductive, and without significantly adding to the stiffness of the soft elastomer. The electrodes are required for electrostatic actuation, but also enable resistive and capacitive sensing of the strain, leading to self-sensing actuators. This review compares the different technologies used to make compliant electrodes for DEAs in terms of: impact on DEA device performance (speed, efficiency, maximum strain), manufacturability, miniaturization, the integration of self-sensing and self-switching, and compatibility with low-voltage operation. While graphite and carbon black have been the most widely used technique in research environments, alternative methods are emerging which combine compliance, conduction at over 100 % strain with better conductivity and/or ease of patternability, including microfabrication-based approaches for compliant metal thin-films, metal-polymer nano-composites, nanoparticle implantation, and reel-to-reel production of μm-scale patterned thin films on elastomers. Such electrodes are key to miniaturization, low-voltage operation, and widespread commercialization of DEAs.

/pdf/flexible-and-stretchable-electrodes-for-dielectric-elastomer-thvr2n3eo4.pdf

Flexible and stretchable electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators

Polymer-based linear actuators with contractile ability are currently demanded for several types of applications. Within the class of dielectric elastomer actuators, two basic configurations are available today for such a purpose: the multi-layer stack and the helical structure. The first consists of several layers of elementary planar actuators stacked in series mechanically and parallel electrically. The second configuration relies on a couple of helical compliant electrodes alternated with a couple of helical dielectrics. The fabrication of both these configurations presents some specific drawbacks today, arising from the peculiarity of each structure. Accordingly, the availability of simpler solutions may boost the short-term use of contractile actuators in practical applications. For this purpose, a new configuration is here described. It consists of a monolithic structure made of an electroded sheet, which is folded up and compacted. The resulting device is functionally equivalent to a multi-layer stack with interdigitated electrodes. However, with respect to a stack the new configuration is advantageously not discontinuous and can be manufactured in one single phase, avoiding layer-by-layer multi-step procedures. The development and preliminary testing of prototype samples of this new actuator made of a silicone elastomer are presented here.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/16/2/S15/pdf

Claudio Salaris

Papers

Folded dielectric elastomer actuators