誘電エラストマー製バルーンアクチュエータによる搬送実験

抄録

In recent years, soft actuators with flexibility and high compliance increasingly attract attention in robotics. The dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA), a kind of electroactive polymer actuators, consists of a dielectric elastomer film and compliant electrodes. The voltage-induced deformations are further improved by pre-stretching the film. To develop the traveling-wave motion, the multi-segment balloon actuator is proposed in the present study. Throughout experimental measurements using three-segment balloon actuator, it is found that the balloons interfere with each other to generate a traveling wave, thus transporting the object linearly. When a paper is introduced as the object, the moving velocity is successfully obtained by 0.39 mm/s when an initial air pressure and an applied voltage are 18 kPa and 5.5 kV, respectively.