Robotic Materials Article 2010

Röntgen’s Electrode-Free Elastomer Actuators without Electromechanical Pull-In Instability

Thumb ticker sm keplinger christoph geringauflo  send
Robotic Materials, Physical Intelligence
Managing Director

Electrical actuators made from films of dielectric elastomers coated on both sides with stretchable electrodes may potentially be applied in microrobotics, tactile and haptic interfaces, as well as in adaptive optical elements. Such actuators with compliant electrodes are sensitive to the pull-in electromechanical instability, limiting operational voltages and attainable deformations. Electrode-free actuators driven by sprayed-on electrical charges were first studied by Röntgen in 1880. They withstand much higher voltages and deformations and allow for electrically clamped (charge-controlled) thermodynamic states preventing electromechanical instabilities. The absence of electrodes allows for direct optical monitoring of the actuated elastomer, as well as for designing new 3D actuator configurations and adaptive optical elements.

Author(s): Christoph Keplinger and Martin Kaltenbrunner and Nikita Arnold and Siegfried Bauer
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume: 107
Number (issue): 10
Pages: 4505--4510
Year: 2010
Month: March
Bibtex Type: Article (article)
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913461107
State: Published
Electronic Archiving: grant_archive

BibTex

@article{Keplinger10-PNAS-ElastomerActuators,
  title = {Röntgen’s Electrode-Free Elastomer Actuators without Electromechanical Pull-In Instability},
  journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  abstract = {Electrical actuators made from films of dielectric elastomers coated on both sides with stretchable electrodes may potentially be applied in microrobotics, tactile and haptic interfaces, as well as in adaptive optical elements. Such actuators with compliant electrodes are sensitive to the pull-in electromechanical instability, limiting operational voltages and attainable deformations. Electrode-free actuators driven by sprayed-on electrical charges were first studied by Röntgen in 1880. They withstand much higher voltages and deformations and allow for electrically clamped (charge-controlled) thermodynamic states preventing electromechanical instabilities. The absence of electrodes allows for direct optical monitoring of the actuated elastomer, as well as for designing new 3D actuator configurations and adaptive optical elements.},
  volume = {107},
  number = {10},
  pages = {4505--4510},
  month = mar,
  year = {2010},
  slug = {keplinger10-pnas-elastomeractuators},
  author = {Keplinger, Christoph and Kaltenbrunner, Martin and Arnold, Nikita and Bauer, Siegfried},
  month_numeric = {3}
}