2020/09/14 by Khoi Ly, Ly, Khoi, Nicholas Kellaris +19
Engineering · #Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #Dielectric materials and actuators #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Robotics (cs.RO) #Soft Robotics and Applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2009.06852
openalex publication_date 2020/09/14 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Soft robotics is a field of robotic system design characterized by materials\nand structures that exhibit large-scale deformation, high compliance, and rich\nmultifunctionality. The incorporation of soft and deformable structures endows\nsoft robotic systems with the compliance and resiliency that makes them\nwell-adapted for unstructured and dynamic environments. While actuation\nmechanisms for soft robots vary widely, soft electrostatic transducers such as\ndielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) and hydraulically amplified self-healing\nelectrostatic (HASEL) actuators have demonstrated promise due to their\nmuscle-like performance and capacitive self-sensing capabilities. Despite\nprevious efforts to implement self-sensing in electrostatic transducers by\noverlaying sinusoidal low-voltage signals, these designs still require sensing\nhigh-voltage signals, requiring bulky components that prevent integration with\nminiature, untethered soft robots. We present a circuit design that eliminates\nthe need for any high-voltage sensing components, thereby facilitating the\ndesign of simple, low cost circuits using off-the-shelf components. Using this\ncircuit, we perform simultaneous sensing and actuation for a range of\nelectrostatic transducers including circular DEAs and HASEL actuators and\ndemonstrate accurate estimated displacements with errors under 4%. We further\ndevelop this circuit into a compact and portable system that couples HV\nactuation, sensing, and computation as a prototype towards untethered,\nmultifunctional soft robotic systems. Finally, we demonstrate the capabilities\nof our self-sensing design through feedback-control of a robotic arm powered by\nPeano-HASEL actuators.\n