Printing 3D dielectric elastomer actuators for soft robotics

Rossiter, J. , Walters, P. and Stoimenov, B. (2009) Printing 3D dielectric elastomer actuators for soft robotics. 11th SPIE Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) conference, San Diego, California, USA, Procee.

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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.815746

Abstract

A conference paper presented at the 11th SPIE Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conference, March 2009, San Diego, California, USA. We present a new approach to the fabrication of soft dielectric elastomer actuators using a 3D printing process. Complete actuators including active membranes and support structures can be 3D printed in one go, resulting in a great improvement in fabrication speed and increases in accuracy and consistency. We describe the fabrication process and present force and displacement results for a double-membrane antagonistic actuator. In this structure controlled prestrain is applied by the simple process of pressing together two printed actuator halves. The development of 3D printable soft actuators will have a large impact on many application areas including engineering, medicine and the emerging field of soft robotics.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Soft dielectric elastomer actuators, 3D printing process
Faculty/Department:	~Pre-2010 Faculty Structure > Faculty of Creative Arts > Centre for Fine Print Research
ID Code:	7710
Deposited By:	J. Montgomery
Deposited On:	22 Apr 2010 13:26
Last Modified:	08 Jan 2013 12:15