Networked soft actuators with large deformations

Abstract

Soft actuators play an important role in producing motions in soft robots, and dielectric elastomers have shown great promise because of their considerable voltage-induced deformation. In particular, air-filled dielectric elastomer actuators have been well studied, where the air inside provides prestretches to improve the actuation range. This paper proposes a network of inflated dielectric elastomer actuators, interconnected via a chamber, with the advantages to be highly deformable and continuously controllable. Theoretical analyses show that the networked design is able to largely postpone the occurrence of material failures of the actuators, resulting in a large and continuous actuation range for their control. We further carried out experiments for validation, and the results were largely in line with the theoretical predictions. These findings essentially provide insight into developing networked soft actuators, for achieving large actuation capability.