TY - GEN
T1 - All-soft material system for strong soft actuators
AU - Bilodeau, R. Adam
AU - Miriyev, Asian
AU - Lipson, Hod
AU - Kramer-Bottiglio, Rebecca
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
PY - 2018/7/5
Y1 - 2018/7/5
N2 - In this paper, we present an improvement to a recently developed thermally responsive silicone-based actuator. The actuator is made of silicone with dispersed solvent droplets and expands when the droplets undergo a liquidgas phase transition, which is achieved at low voltages using an embedded Joule heater. In previous work, the embedded heater was a nickel-chromium spiral-shaped Joule heating wire. In the present work, we replace the wire with a silicone-based conductive composite to create a fully soft actuator. We characterize the thermal response of the conductive composite for Joule heating the actuator and the blocked force of the actuator when implemented as a McKibben-like muscle. From this, we show that the conductive composite performs as well as the original wire heater, with improved material compatibility. Finally, we demonstrate a 20 g silicone actuator embedded with the conductive composite lifting its 4.3 kg DC power source.
AB - In this paper, we present an improvement to a recently developed thermally responsive silicone-based actuator. The actuator is made of silicone with dispersed solvent droplets and expands when the droplets undergo a liquidgas phase transition, which is achieved at low voltages using an embedded Joule heater. In previous work, the embedded heater was a nickel-chromium spiral-shaped Joule heating wire. In the present work, we replace the wire with a silicone-based conductive composite to create a fully soft actuator. We characterize the thermal response of the conductive composite for Joule heating the actuator and the blocked force of the actuator when implemented as a McKibben-like muscle. From this, we show that the conductive composite performs as well as the original wire heater, with improved material compatibility. Finally, we demonstrate a 20 g silicone actuator embedded with the conductive composite lifting its 4.3 kg DC power source.
KW - all-soft system
KW - soft artificial muscle
KW - soft electrically conductive heater
KW - thermally responsive actuator
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050660179&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404934
DO - 10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404934
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85050660179
T3 - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2018
SP - 288
EP - 294
BT - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2018
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
T2 - 1st IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2018
Y2 - 24 April 2018 through 28 April 2018
ER -