[ABI Seminars] Dielectric Elastomers - artificial muscles for swimming through the air [12/11/2013]

Since the year 2000 the field of Electro Active Polymers and specially that of Dielectric Elastomers (DE) has been of strong interest of chemists, physics, material scientists, and engineers. At Empa, a Swiss Materials Science and Technology institution, the main focus of activities related to DE was to explore possible applications of this new technology in all kinds of application fields. In this presentation a summary is given of the experiences gained in the past, followed by a closer look into a project where large DE actuators haven been developed in order to be used as artificial muscles in a model airship swimming through the air like a fish in water. Finally, the state-of-the-art of this technology is given as well as an insight into on-going and future activities at Empa.
A Bioengineering research seminar by Dr Silvain Michel, Senior Research Engineer, Mechanical Systems Engineering Lab, Empa-Materials Science and Technology, Switzerland.