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research article

A Foldable Antagonistic Actuator

Shintake, Jun  
•
Rosset, Samuel  
•
Schubert, Bryan Edward  
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2015
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics

We report on an actuator based on dielectric elastomers that is capable of antagonistic actuation and passive folding. This actuator enables foldability in robots with simple structures. Unlike other antagonistic dielectric elastomer devices, our concept uses elastic hinges to allow the folding of the structure, which also provides an additional design parameter. To validate the actuator concept through a specific application test, a foldable elevon actuator with outline size of 70 mm × 130 mm is developed with angular displacement range and torque specifications matched to a 400-mm wingspan micro-air vehicle (MAV) of mass 130 g. A closed-form analytical model of the actuator is constructed, which was used to guide the actuator design. The actuator consists of 125-μm-thick silicone membranes as the dielectric elastomers, 0.2mm-thick fiberglass plate as the frame structure, and 50-μm-thick polyimide as the elastic hinge. We measured voltage-controllable angular displacement up to ±26° and torque of 2720 mN · mm at 5 kV, with good agreement between the model and the measured data. Two elevon actuators are integrated into the MAV, which was successfully flown, with the foldable actuators providing stable and well-controlled flight. The controllability was quantitatively evaluated by calculating the correlation between the control signal and the MAV motion, with a correlation in roll axis of over 0.7 measured during the flights, illustrating the high performance of this foldable actuator.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1109/TMECH.2014.2359337
Web of Science ID

WOS:000360831900001

Author(s)
Shintake, Jun  
Rosset, Samuel  
Schubert, Bryan Edward  
Floreano, Dario  
Shea, Herbert  
Date Issued

2015

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Published in
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
Volume

20

Issue

5

Start page

1997

End page

2008

Subjects

Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

•

Artificial Muscles

•

Soft Robotics

•

Micro Air Vehicle

•

Foldable Robots

•

Aerial Robotics

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

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NCCR-ROBOTICS  
Available on Infoscience
September 16, 2014
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/106930
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