An Easy-to-Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High-Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots.

ABSTRACT: For soft robots to have ubiquitous adoption in practical applications they require soft actuators that provide well-rounded actuation performance that parallels natural muscle while being inexpensive and easily fabricated. This manuscript introduces a toolkit to rapidly prototype, manufacture, test, and power various designs of hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators with muscle-like performance that achieve all three basic modes of actuation (expansion, contraction, and rotation). This toolkit utilizes easy-to-implement methods, inexpensive fabrication tools, commodity materials, and off-the-shelf high-voltage electronics thereby enabling a wide audience to explore HASEL technology. Remarkably, the actuators created from this easy-to-implement toolkit achieve

SUBMITTER: Mitchell SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6662077 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature