Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced Deformation
An actuator built with flexible material has the advantage of smaller size and can withstand certain collisions better than actuators with rigid material. This paper proposes a crawling actuator model driven by dielectric elastomer (DE), which uses the electrically induced deformation of the DE memb...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Actuators |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/11/11/338 |
| _version_ | 1827645300667318272 |
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| author | Haiqiang Liu Chen Yang Zhengyun Xu Ming Lv Rougang Zhou |
| author_facet | Haiqiang Liu Chen Yang Zhengyun Xu Ming Lv Rougang Zhou |
| author_sort | Haiqiang Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | An actuator built with flexible material has the advantage of smaller size and can withstand certain collisions better than actuators with rigid material. This paper proposes a crawling actuator model driven by dielectric elastomer (DE), which uses the electrically induced deformation of the DE membrane to drive the motion of the actuator. When the dielectric elastomer in the actuator is at higher voltage, the DE material produces higher deformation, and the deformation is transmitted to the ground through the friction foot thus driving the motion of the actuator. An interpolation fitting estimation algorithm (IFEA) was constructed based on the relevant material properties and principles. The pre-stretch length of the DE membrane was determined and verified through experiment; the verified results showed that the actuator has better driving performance when the membrane pre-stretching ratio is equal to 3. The crawling actuator can achieve a speed of about 50 mm/s at 4 kv and can reach 11 mm/s when loaded with four times its weight. The new crawling actuator achieved an excellent turning ability of 8.2°/s at 60% duty cycle and 32 Hz frequency. Compared with other types of crawling actuators, the actuator presented in this work has better load capacity and crawling performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T18:32:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9efdeae70a044ed08cffd38361474388 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0825 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T18:32:25Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Actuators |
| spelling | doaj.art-9efdeae70a044ed08cffd383614743882023-11-24T07:24:11ZengMDPI AGActuators2076-08252022-11-01111133810.3390/act11110338Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced DeformationHaiqiang Liu0Chen Yang1Zhengyun Xu2Ming Lv3Rougang Zhou4School of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, ChinaSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, ChinaSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, ChinaSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, ChinaSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, ChinaAn actuator built with flexible material has the advantage of smaller size and can withstand certain collisions better than actuators with rigid material. This paper proposes a crawling actuator model driven by dielectric elastomer (DE), which uses the electrically induced deformation of the DE membrane to drive the motion of the actuator. When the dielectric elastomer in the actuator is at higher voltage, the DE material produces higher deformation, and the deformation is transmitted to the ground through the friction foot thus driving the motion of the actuator. An interpolation fitting estimation algorithm (IFEA) was constructed based on the relevant material properties and principles. The pre-stretch length of the DE membrane was determined and verified through experiment; the verified results showed that the actuator has better driving performance when the membrane pre-stretching ratio is equal to 3. The crawling actuator can achieve a speed of about 50 mm/s at 4 kv and can reach 11 mm/s when loaded with four times its weight. The new crawling actuator achieved an excellent turning ability of 8.2°/s at 60% duty cycle and 32 Hz frequency. Compared with other types of crawling actuators, the actuator presented in this work has better load capacity and crawling performance.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/11/11/338dielectric elastomerflexible actuatorinduced deformationpre-stretch ratiomembrane |
| spellingShingle | Haiqiang Liu Chen Yang Zhengyun Xu Ming Lv Rougang Zhou Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced Deformation Actuators dielectric elastomer flexible actuator induced deformation pre-stretch ratio membrane |
| title | Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced Deformation |
| title_full | Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced Deformation |
| title_fullStr | Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced Deformation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced Deformation |
| title_short | Improvement of Adaptive Motion Performance in a Flexible Actuator, Based on Electrically Induced Deformation |
| title_sort | improvement of adaptive motion performance in a flexible actuator based on electrically induced deformation |
| topic | dielectric elastomer flexible actuator induced deformation pre-stretch ratio membrane |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/11/11/338 |
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