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1.  References and Notes

1.1  Design Configuration

Multi-layer

Pile-up (Kovacs et al. 2009)

Folded (Carpi et al. 2007)

Rolled (Kovacs et al. 2007)

Single-layer

Diaphragm (Dastoor et al. 2012)

Hinge segment (Lochmatter et al. 2007)

Shell (Lochmatter et al. 2008)

Design Maps and Scaling Laws (Plante (Dubowsky) Dissertation, 2006) Attach:Plante_dissertation.pdf

1.2  Materials and Manufacturing

Electrodes Fabrication

Conductive carbon grease (Dastoor et al. 2012)

• Fabrication procedures: Current method in BDML

Carbon powder electrode layer (Kovacs et al. 2009)

• No adhesion between different layers
• Purely carbon powder (carbon powder Ketjenblack 600 from Akzo Nobel) as electrode coated on acrylic film (VHB4910)
  • Method 1: put powder on acrylic film (intrinsic adhesive) and suction cleaning
  • Method 2: activate pile-up layers (generate attraction between layers) and suction cleaning
• Electrode layer should < 1um to withstand tensile force
• 80um DE becomes unstable with 4.5kV
• A remarkable robustness against exterior influences, such as humidity and mechanical influences has been observed

Carbon-silicon mixture electrodes (Carpi et al. 2007)

• Silicone/carbon-black mixture (CAF 4, Rhodorsil, France/Vulcan XC 72 R, Carbocrom, Italy)
• Spray coated
• Super detailed fabrication procedure described in:
• Dry, homogeneous, strong and better activated strain than conductive carbon grease

Interesting stretching method using coiled shower hose in a ring http://www.youtube.com/user/Fenris1024

EAP Properties

(Pelrine et al. 2000):

• Detailed testing results and capacity parameters and comparisons of three promising EAPs
• Include planar and linear stretch test
• VHB 4910 acrylic polymer (acrylic adhesive) has highest performance
  • 100% relative strain level without break
  • High viscoelastic loss, limit to 30-40 HZ in the circular test
  • VHB 4910 160% undergo buckling. Not seen in silicone film

1.3  Modeling

Wissler et al. 2005

Lochmatter et al. 2007

Attach:Newton_thesis_2012.pdf -- Jonathan Clark's Variable Stiffness by DE

1.4  Failure Analysis

Attach:StevenDubowsky.pdf -- Large Scale Failure about wrinkling introduced by Sanjay

2.  References List

G. Kovacs, , L. Dόring, S. Michel, G. Terrasi, "Stacked dielectric elastomer actuator for tensile force transmission", Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, Volume 155, Issue 2, October 2009, Pages 299–307.

Federico Carpi, Claudio Salaris and Danilo De Rossi, "Folded dielectric elastomer actuators", Smart Mater. Struct. 16, 2007, Pages 300–305.

Gabor Kovacs, Patrick Lochmatter and Michael Wissler, "An arm wrestling robot driven by dielectric elastomer actuators", Smart Mater. Struct. 16, 2007, Pages 306–317.

Sanjay Dastoor and Mark Cutkosky, "Design of Dielectric Electroactive Polymers for a Compact and Scalable Variable Stiffness Device", Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2012 IEEE International Conference, 2012, Pages 3745-3750.

P. Lochmatter, G. Kovacsa, "Design and characterization of an active hinge segment based on soft dielectric EAPs", Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, Volume 141, Issue 2, 15 February 2008, Pages 577–587.

P. Lochmatter, G. Kovacsa, "Design and characterization of an actively deformable shell structure composed of interlinked active hinge segments driven by soft dielectric EAPs", Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, Volume 141, Issue 2, 15 February 2008, Pages 588–597.

Ron Pelrine, Roy Kornbluh, Qibing Pei, Jose Joseph, "High-Speed Electrically Actuated Elastomers with Strain Greater Than 100%)", Science, VOL 287, 2000, Pages 836-839.

Michael Wissler, Edoardo Mazza, "Modeling and simulation of dielectric elastomer actuators", Smart Mater. Struct. 14, 2005, Pages 1396–1402.

Patrick Lochmatter, Gabor Kovacs, Michael Wissler, "Characterization of dielectric elastomer actuators based on a visco-hyperelastic film model", Smart Mater. Struct. 16, 2007, Pages, 477–486.