Soft Robotic Module Actuated by Silicone-Based Rolled Dielectric Elastomer Actuators - Modeling and Simulation

Inhalt:
Soft robotics is a special field of robotics with increasing popularity in the recent decades. Established actuation mechanisms for soft robots are pneumatic or tendon-based systems, which require comparatively large and non-soft external support devices such as air compressors or electrical motors. For such applications, dielectric elastomers present themselves as an attractive class of smart materials that offer inherent softness and flexibility as well as noiseless actuation. In this paper, we present a scalable, DE-actuated soft robotic module, of which several can be arranged into modular structures. A dynamic model is formulated and several simulations are carried out to optimize actuation performance.