A Pocket‐Sized Ten‐Channel High Voltage Power Supply for Soft Electrostatic Actuators
As soft electrostatic actuators find applications in bio-inspired robotics, compact and lightweight high voltage electronics that independently address many actuators are required. Here, a pocket-sized, battery-powered, 10-channel high voltage power supply (HVPS) is presented, which independently addresses each channel up to 10 kV. The HVPS uses one HV amplifier to create a HV rail and each output connects to the rail via custom optocouplers that are pulse-width modulated to vary their conductance. These optocouplers distribute charges to and from electrostatic devices at each output, creating a charge-controlled driving scheme that can generate independent and nearly arbitrary actuation waveforms for each channel. The HVPS weighs 250 g and measures 8.4 cm × 13.3 cm × 2 cm, about the size of a smartphone. The HVPS is characterized when driving hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators. While powering a 5 nF actuator, the output of the HVPS reaches 8 kV in 100 ms and drives a 1.5 nF actuator at 100 Hz (0 to 5.4 kV). The HVPS powers an active surface consisting of an array of HASELs and generates undulatory locomotion of a soft robotic inchworm, highlighting the potential for compact HV electronics that power multi-degree-of-freedom robotic systems based on electrostatic devices.
| Author(s): | Shane K. Mitchell and Trent Martin and Christoph Keplinger |
| Journal: | Advanced Materials Technologies |
| Volume: | 7 |
| Number (issue): | 8 |
| Year: | 2022 |
| Month: | August |
| BibTeX Type: | Article (article) |
| DOI: | doi.org/10.1002/admt.202101469 |
| State: | Published |
| URL: | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/admt.202101469 |
| Article Number: | 2101469 |
| Electronic Archiving: | grant_archive |
BibTeX
@article{Keplinger22-AMT-pocket-sized-hvps,
title = {A Pocket‐Sized Ten‐Channel High Voltage Power Supply for Soft Electrostatic Actuators},
journal = {Advanced Materials Technologies},
abstract = {As soft electrostatic actuators find applications in bio-inspired robotics, compact and lightweight high voltage electronics that independently address many actuators are required. Here, a pocket-sized, battery-powered, 10-channel high voltage power supply (HVPS) is presented, which independently addresses each channel up to 10 kV. The HVPS uses one HV amplifier to create a HV rail and each output connects to the rail via custom optocouplers that are pulse-width modulated to vary their conductance. These optocouplers distribute charges to and from electrostatic devices at each output, creating a charge-controlled driving scheme that can generate independent and nearly arbitrary actuation waveforms for each channel. The HVPS weighs 250 g and measures 8.4 cm × 13.3 cm × 2 cm, about the size of a smartphone. The HVPS is characterized when driving hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators. While powering a 5 nF actuator, the output of the HVPS reaches 8 kV in 100 ms and drives a 1.5 nF actuator at 100 Hz (0 to 5.4 kV). The HVPS powers an active surface consisting of an array of HASELs and generates undulatory locomotion of a soft robotic inchworm, highlighting the potential for compact HV electronics that power multi-degree-of-freedom robotic systems based on electrostatic devices.},
volume = {7},
number = {8},
month = aug,
year = {2022},
author = {Mitchell, Shane K. and Martin, Trent and Keplinger, Christoph},
doi = {doi.org/10.1002/admt.202101469},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/admt.202101469},
month_numeric = {8}
}