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Design and Performance Testing of Electro-fluidic Soft Actuator

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Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA 2024)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 15203))

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Abstract

Electro-fluidic actuators have become an investigated hotspot for their inherent adaptability and security of human-machine interaction. This paper points to combining the characteristics of dielectric elastomers and fluid actuators and developing electro-fluidic soft actuators by modifying Al2O3 on the surface of nano BaTiO3 to move forward the dielectric constant and breakdown field strength and by utilizing the silicone rubber material as a substrate. Tests on the actuation strain and current performance of the electro-fluidic soft actuator under diverse loads were carried out, which appeared that the maximum actuation strain of the electro-fluidic soft actuator was 17.20% under 100 g load, the critical breakdown current of the actuator was 115 μA~130 μA, and the maximum electro-mechanical conversion efficiency of the actuator was 67.93% under different loads. Experimental results show that an appropriate load is beneficial to improving the energy utilization of the actuator. Finally, the development of electro-fluidic soft actuators has opened new avenues for materials development and application, contributing to the development of soft robots.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply grateful for financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52375293), the Open Fund of Laboratory of Aerospace Servo Actuation and Transmission (No. LASAT-2021-05), the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Small and Medium-sized UAVs (No. XCA22054-06).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Bionic Functional Materials, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Yuze Ye, Qingsong He, Lin Xie, Changli Yang & Shouyi Ni

  2. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Aerospace Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Qingsong He

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  1. Yuze Ye
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  3. Lin Xie
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Correspondence to Qingsong He .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Xuguang Lan

  2. Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Xuesong Mei

  3. Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Caigui Jiang

  4. Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Fei Zhao

  5. Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

    Zhiqiang Tian

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Ye, Y., He, Q., Xie, L., Yang, C., Ni, S. (2025). Design and Performance Testing of Electro-fluidic Soft Actuator. In: Lan, X., Mei, X., Jiang, C., Zhao, F., Tian, Z. (eds) Intelligent Robotics and Applications. ICIRA 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 15203. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-0795-2_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-0795-2_22

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