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Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are a promising actuator technology for soft robotics. As a configuration of this technology, stacked DEAs afford a muscle-like contraction that is useful to build soft robotic systems. In stacked DEAs, dielectric and electrode layers are alternately stacked. Th...

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Autores principales: Shintake, Jun, Ichige, Daiki, Kanno, Ryo, Nagai, Toshiaki, Shimizu, Keita
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8654933/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34901169
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.714332
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author Shintake, Jun
Ichige, Daiki
Kanno, Ryo
Nagai, Toshiaki
Shimizu, Keita
author_facet Shintake, Jun
Ichige, Daiki
Kanno, Ryo
Nagai, Toshiaki
Shimizu, Keita
author_sort Shintake, Jun
collection PubMed
description Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are a promising actuator technology for soft robotics. As a configuration of this technology, stacked DEAs afford a muscle-like contraction that is useful to build soft robotic systems. In stacked DEAs, dielectric and electrode layers are alternately stacked. Thus, often a dedicated setup with complicated processes or sometimes laborious manual stacking of the layers is required to fabricate stacked actuators. In this study, we propose a method to monolithically fabricate stacked DEAs without alternately stacking the dielectric and electrode layers. In this method, the actuators are fabricated mainly through two steps: 1) molding of an elastomeric matrix containing free-form microfluidic channels and 2) injection of a liquid conductive material that acts as an electrode. The feasibility of our method is investigated via the fabrication and characterization of simple monolithic DEAs with multiple electrodes (2, 4, and 10). The fabricated actuators are characterized in terms of actuation stroke, output force, and frequency response. In the actuators, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and eutectic gallium–indium (EGaIn) are used for the elastomeric matrix and electrode material, respectively. Microfluidic channels are realized by dissolving a three-dimensional printed part suspended in the elastomeric structure. The experimental results show the successful implementation of the proposed method and the good agreement between the measured data and theoretical predication, validating the feasibility of the proposed method.
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spelling pubmed-86549332021-12-10 Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators Shintake, Jun Ichige, Daiki Kanno, Ryo Nagai, Toshiaki Shimizu, Keita Front Robot AI Robotics and AI Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are a promising actuator technology for soft robotics. As a configuration of this technology, stacked DEAs afford a muscle-like contraction that is useful to build soft robotic systems. In stacked DEAs, dielectric and electrode layers are alternately stacked. Thus, often a dedicated setup with complicated processes or sometimes laborious manual stacking of the layers is required to fabricate stacked actuators. In this study, we propose a method to monolithically fabricate stacked DEAs without alternately stacking the dielectric and electrode layers. In this method, the actuators are fabricated mainly through two steps: 1) molding of an elastomeric matrix containing free-form microfluidic channels and 2) injection of a liquid conductive material that acts as an electrode. The feasibility of our method is investigated via the fabrication and characterization of simple monolithic DEAs with multiple electrodes (2, 4, and 10). The fabricated actuators are characterized in terms of actuation stroke, output force, and frequency response. In the actuators, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and eutectic gallium–indium (EGaIn) are used for the elastomeric matrix and electrode material, respectively. Microfluidic channels are realized by dissolving a three-dimensional printed part suspended in the elastomeric structure. The experimental results show the successful implementation of the proposed method and the good agreement between the measured data and theoretical predication, validating the feasibility of the proposed method. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8654933/ /pubmed/34901169 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.714332 Text en Copyright © 2021 Shintake, Ichige, Kanno, Nagai and Shimizu. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Robotics and AI
Shintake, Jun
Ichige, Daiki
Kanno, Ryo
Nagai, Toshiaki
Shimizu, Keita
Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
title Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
title_full Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
title_fullStr Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
title_full_unstemmed Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
title_short Monolithic Stacked Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
title_sort monolithic stacked dielectric elastomer actuators
topic Robotics and AI
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8654933/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34901169
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.714332
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AT shimizukeita monolithicstackeddielectricelastomeractuators