A Jumping Robot Driven by a Dielectric Elastomer Actuator

Abstract

Dielectric elastomer (DE) is a soft material that can deform to a large degree under the action of an electric field. In this paper, multilayer DE films were stacked in parallel to prepare a 20-layer dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA). This DEA could provide a peak output force of 30 N, which significantly improves the driving performance of the DEA and provides conditions for large load driving of the DEA. As a new driving method, the DEA was applied to a jumping robot, and the heavy-weight robot accomplished jumping motion after several cycles of energy storage.