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Fa-Yi Chen Tse Han Lin Chee How Lu Hao Yan Wu Shu Huang Gih-Keong Lau

Abstract

Artificial biceps based on rolled dielectric elastomer actuators were envisaged to drive a lightweight robotic arm but suffer from limited force generation. A long roll of the actuators has strain accumulated at the expenditure of reduced strength. Due to limited force generation, their applications regress to where low force is adequate. In this work, we reinforced a roll of the dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) by multi-segment hoops of polyimide film to keep the DEA membrane in high pre-stretch and thus high dielectric strength. The multi-segment roll of 4-layered DEA with 5-times hoop pre-stretch and 4-times axial pre-stretch sustained a very high electric field of up 105MV/m. Such inactive DEA rolls each of 6.6-gram light and 115mm long supported a 500-gram payload. When activated between 4-5kV, the DEA roll can produce 24-25% elongation. In addition, the polyimide hoop reinforcement is much lighter than the metal helical coil used in the spring roll. Hence, the reinforced dielectric elastomer rolls achieved a 15.3J/kg high isotonic work density which is almost 4 to 5 times that achieved by a referenced spring roll. They made forceful biceps muscles with a payload capacity of half the mass of robotic arms. Further, the reinforced DEAs also made a bionic gripper with a payload capacity of 10 times the gripper weight.  Multiplication of the bicipital muscle unit can help sustain an even higher payload.

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Keywords

bionic robotic arm, dielectric elastomer actuators, artificial muscles, soft robots, soft grippers

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