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Development of a Polymer-actuated Binary Manipulator Development of a Polymer-actuated Binary Manipulator

Proposed applications for future robotic systems, ranging from space exploration to medical tasks, will require robotic devices and components that are simple, robust, lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to control. Binary actuation greatly reduces complexity by having only two discrete states for each degree of freedom. A high number of binary actuators is required for a manipulator to approach the performance of continuous systems. The complexity of current actuator technology prevents the development of practical binary robots. Dielectric elastomer actuators exhibit high energy densities and large displacement responses and might enable practical binary robots. These actuators exhibit muscle-like behavior and change their geometry as a voltage is applied. This thesis discusses the application of dielectric elastomer actuators to mechanical system with a special focus on binary robots. The performance of most dielectric elastomer actuators in practical system is much less than what can be achieved under ideal laboratory conditions. It is shown that good performance is achieved by incorporating the dielectric elastomer into a flexible frame that provides an elastic restoring force. This actuator module can work under both tension and compression. Based on a physical model, the actuator module is tuned with passive elastic elements to have optimal work output when integrated into a mechanical system. These actuator modules are used to power a binary manipulator. A six degree of freedom prototype demonstrates feasibility. Thesis Supervisor: Steven Dubowsky Title: Professor of Mechanical Engineering