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Soft Electroactive Suction Cup with Dielectric Elastomer Actuators for Soft Robotics

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Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (Living Machines 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 14157))

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Abstract

Soft grippers, made of flexible and deformable materials, are used to grasp and manipulate objects and represent a rapidly growing area in the field of soft robotics. Inspired by nature, biomimetic soft grippers are designed to mimic the gripping and manipulation capabilities of biological organisms, such as octopus tentacles or human fingers. These grippers use soft and flexible materials that can conform to the shape of objects and provide gentle, yet strong gripping forces. For the design and actuation of such a gripper, dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are suitable candidates, as they are made of thin elastomer layers sandwiched between compliant electrode layers. They are, hence, at the same time elastic, deformable and capable of performing actuation. In this paper, we present the development of an electroactive suction cup made with DEAs. We explain the novel concept and design of the soft backbone and its necessity for the suction mechanism. We present a demonstrator and characterize the deflection of the membrane under different voltages.

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Acknowledgement

Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC-2193/1 – 390951807.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for the Design of Microsystems, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

    Armin Jamali, Dushyant Bhagwan Mishra, Prathyusha Sriperumbuduri, Robert Knoerlein, Frank Goldschmidtboeing & Peter Woias

  2. Cluster of Excellence livMatS, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

    Armin Jamali, Dushyant Bhagwan Mishra, Prathyusha Sriperumbuduri, Frank Goldschmidtboeing & Peter Woias

Authors
  1. Armin Jamali
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  2. Dushyant Bhagwan Mishra
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  3. Prathyusha Sriperumbuduri
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  4. Robert Knoerlein
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  5. Frank Goldschmidtboeing
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  6. Peter Woias
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Armin Jamali .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy

    Fabian Meder

  2. Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

    Alexander Hunt

  3. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy

    Laura Margheri

  4. Radboud University Nijmegen, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Anna Mura

  5. Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy

    Barbara Mazzolai

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Jamali, A., Mishra, D.B., Sriperumbuduri, P., Knoerlein, R., Goldschmidtboeing, F., Woias, P. (2023). Soft Electroactive Suction Cup with Dielectric Elastomer Actuators for Soft Robotics. In: Meder, F., Hunt, A., Margheri, L., Mura, A., Mazzolai, B. (eds) Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems. Living Machines 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 14157. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38857-6_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38857-6_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38856-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38857-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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