Study of an eccentric dielectric elastomer motor and its application for soft robots

Abstract Dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) is an attractive electro-active actuator, which has great potential in soft robots. This paper investigates the deformation and application of an eccentric dielectric elastomer (DE) motor constructed by a typical circle DEA and a central block. The motion of DE motor is achieved collaboratively by several electrode segments patterned on the DE film. The deformation of the motor under voltage is deduced according to the balance state between external force and dielectric elastomer film, and a revised angle is taken concerning large deformation of DE motor. Numerical results are presented and the effects of design parameters, loads and voltages are discussed. Experiments are taken for verification and the results show a good agreement with numerical results. The eccentric DE motor is used to finish the prescribed tasks including tracking and crawling through controlling voltages of different electrode segments.