A small biomimetic quadruped robot driven by multistacked dielectric elastomer actuators

• Published in: Smart materials and structures Vol. 23; no. 6; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Canh Toan, Phung, Hoa, Nguyen, Tien Dat, Lee, Choonghan, Kim, Uikyum, Lee, Donghyouk, Moon, Hyungpil, Koo, Jachoon, Nam, Jae-do, Choi, Hyouk Ryeol
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.06.2014; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Actuators; biomimetic; Dielectrics; Elastomers; Exact sciences and technology; Feasibility; General equipment and techniques; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; legged robot; Miniature; multistacked dielectric elastomer actuators; Performance evaluation; Physics; Robots; Servo and control equipment; robots; Stacking; Actuators; Force measurement; Electroactive polymer; Prototype; Stacking sequence; Dielectric materials; System with two degrees of freedom; Joining; Robotics; ABS; Biomimetics; Kinematics; Miniaturization; Performance
• ISSN: 0964-1726; 1361-665X
• DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/23/6/065005

A kind of dielectric elastomer (DE) material, called 'synthetic elastomer', has been developed based on acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) to be used as a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA). By stacking single layers of synthetic elastomer, a linear actuator, called a multistacked actuator, is produced, and used by mechatronic and robotic systems to generate linear motion. In this paper, we demonstrate the application of the multistacked dielectric elastomer actuator in a biomimetic legged robot. A miniature robot driven by a biomimetic actuation system with four 2-DOF (two-degree-of-freedom) legged mechanisms is realized. Based on the experimental results, we evaluate the performance of the proposed robot and validate the feasibility of the multistacked actuator in a locomotion system as a replacement for conventional actuators.