Aerosol jet printing and lightweight power electronics for dielectric elastomer actuators

Dielectric elastomer actuators have been subject of researches in materials science since almost two decades. The synonymous denotation “artificial muscles” emphasizes the potential capability of those actuators, whereat the skeletal muscles of mammals, which are the biological archetypes, even are exceeded pertaining energy density and efficiency. These new kind of actuators depicts promising actuators for the development of a new generation of robotic solutions, such as inherently safe systems for human robot cooperation, highly dynamical, mobile and energy autarkic kinematics or even prosthetics. Since there are several challenges to be handled, like the high supply voltage, no automated manufacturing process for multilayered dielectric elastomer actuators is available and thus no actuators systems based on dielectric elastomer actuators for complex robot kinematics or commercial products. Now the Aerosol Jet Printing process seems suitable for an automated manufacturing process by printing such actuators and is investigated within the framework of the Bavarian biomimetic initiative “bionicum-forschung”. With this additive process stacked actuators are printed, where insulating and conducting layers are alternating and the automated manufacturing of stacked actuators with thousands of layers seems possible in the long term. With the new built actuators, new mobile and autarkic platforms in the range of a capuchin will be designed. Therefore lightweight power electronics are necessary, which investigation represents the second main research task within the project. Here only one high-mass central power supply is able to individually operate each of the artificial muscles on the platform with a pulse width modulated high voltage signal. Thus each actuator does not need its own supply. The presented project aims with the development of a mobile and autarkic platform the improvement of actual robot platforms regarding to dynamical interactions with the environment, like jumping, and the progress of the actual state of the art of robotics.