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Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are a class of highly deformable electroactive polymers (EAPs) employed for electromechanical transduction technology. When electrostatically actuated dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are subjected to an input signal comprising multiple Heaviside voltage steps, the emerging inherent residual vibrations may limit their motion accuracy in practical applications. In this paper, the systematic development of a command-shaping scheme is proposed for controlling residual vibrations in an electrically driven planar DEA. The proposed scheme relies on invoking the force balance at the point of maximum lateral stretch in an oscillation cycle to bring the actuator to a stagnation state followed by the application of an additional electric input signal of predetermined magnitude at a specific time. The underlying concept of the proposed control scheme is articulated for a single Heaviside step input-driven actuator and further extended to the actuator subjected to the multistep input signal. The equation governing the dynamic motion of the actuator is derived using the principle of virtual work. The devised dynamic model of the actuator incorporates the effects of strain stiffening of elastomer and viscous energy dissipation. The nonlinear dynamic governing equation is solved using matlab ode solver for extracting the dynamic response of the actuator. The applicability of the devised command-shaping control scheme is illustrated by taking a wide range of parameters including variations in the extent of equilibrium state sequences, damping, and polymer chain extensibility. The proposed scheme is found to be adaptable in controlling the vibrations of the actuator for any desired equilibrium state. The results presented in this paper can find its potential application in the design of an open-loop control system for DEAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method to achieve high deformability levels in dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) by applying a modulated voltage waveform. The method relies on supplying the electrostatic energy during the specific phase of the oscillation cycle, resulting in the enhanced travel range at a relatively low driving voltage. We consider a standard sandwich configuration of the DE actuator with neo-Hookean material model and outline an energy-based approach for delineating the underlying principles of the proposed method. A comparison of the deformability levels achieved using the quasi-static, Heaviside step, and the modulated input waveforms is presented. Significant reduction in instability voltages together with a considerable increase in the stable actuation limit is observed in the case of the modulated voltage input. The estimates of the stability thresholds are validated by integrating the equation of motion obtained using Hamilton's principle. The effect of energy dissipation is assessed by considering variations in the quality factor. Further, a qualitative comparison with experimental observations is presented highlighting the practical feasibility of the method. This investigation can find its potential use in the design and development of DEAs subjected to a time-dependent motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermally conductive filled polymers enable the creation of multifunctional structures that offer both anchoring points for the embedded actuators, as well as heat-dissipation functions, in order to facilitate the miniaturization of devices. However, there are two important challenges in creating these structures: (1) sufficient thermal management to prevent failure of the actuator and (2) the ability of the actuator to survive the manufacturing process. This paper describes a systematic approach for design of multifunctional structures with embedded heat-generating components using an in-mold assembly process to address these challenges. For the first challenge, the development of appropriate thermal models is presented along with incorporation of in-mold assembly process constraints in the optimization process. For the second challenge, a simulation of the molding process is presented and demonstrated to enable the determination of processing conditions ensuring survival of the in-mold assembly process for the embedded actuator. Thus, the design methodology described in this paper was utilized to concurrently optimize the choice of material, size of the structure, and processing conditions in order to demonstrate the feasibility of creating multifunctional structures from thermally conductive polymers by embedding actuators through an in-mold assembly process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an energetically derived control methodology to specify and regulate the oscillatory motion of a pneumatic hopping robot. An ideal lossless pneumatic actuation system with an inertia is shown to represent an oscillator with a stiffness, and hence frequency, related to the equilibrium pressures in the actuator. Following from an analysis of the conservative energy storage elements in the system, a control methodology is derived to sustain a specified frequency of oscillation in the presence of energy dissipation. The basic control strategy is to control the pressure in the upper chamber of the pneumatic cylinder to specify the contact time of the piston, while controlling the total conservative energy stored in the system to specify the flight time and corresponding flight height of the cylinder. The control strategy takes advantage of the natural passive dynamics of the upper chamber to provide much of the required actuation forces and natural stiffness, while the remaining forces needed to overcome the energy dissipation present in a nonideal system with losses are provided by a nonlinear control law for the charging and discharging of the lower chamber of the cylinder. Efficient hopping motion, relative to a traditional nonconservative actuator, is achieved by allowing the energy storing capability of a pneumatic actuator to store and return energy to the system at a controlled specifiable frequency. The control methodology is demonstrated through simulation and experimental results to provide accurate and repeatable hopping motion for pneumatically actuated robots in the presence of dissipative forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]