Research On Dielectric Elastomer Actuation Module For Ultro Lightweight Soft Manipulator

Compared with the traditional rigid robot,the soft robot has many advantages,such as high flexibility,good security,strong environmental adaptability,and so on,and it has broad prospects for application.The soft manipulators like elephant trunk or octopus tentacles with ability of continuous large deformation have been being research hotspots for scholars.The most important factors affecting the working performance of manipulator are driving material and deformation mode.This paper selects dielectric elastomer with high energy density as the driving material,and selects locally large deflection deformation of closed structure as the deformation mode.Then a kind of actuation module which can be used for soft manipulator is researched.The specific research contents are as follows.Through the structural analysis of elephant trunk,this paper designed and improved the actuation module,and analyzed the driving principle of the two schemes,and then took the improved scheme as the object of further research.Dimension design was given according to comprehensive consideration of surface morphology of dielectric elastomer film and stiffness requirement of module.A static model was established using equivalent thinking based on force analysis of module.Through extracting module core parameters,combining with theoretical calculation and experimental results,the deformation angle optimization route was given by using least square method.After selection of appropriate dielectric elastomer material models,whose parameters were determined by means of experiment testing,the deformation process of module was simulated by software ABAQUS.Subsequently,the simulation results and the deviant behaviors were analyzed.In this paper,the actuation module fabrication process was researched.And the relevant experimental platforms were built for the performance tests of module and the applications of the soft manipulator.The feasibility of the two driving schemes was verified through experimental research,and the module performance indexes of them were tested,mainly including output angle displacement and output torque.The relationship between indexes and applied voltage were obtained.Moreover,the module output torque was greatly improved by multilayer scheme.Ultimately the comprehensive performances of two modules were evaluated.Taking the new structure as research object,the influence on structure deformation of core parameters was explored.Then a three-module tandem type soft manipulator was designed and fabricated using new structure,and the stiffness optimization of manipulator was carried out.Eventually,the soft manipulator was applied in load transportation and pipeline survey successfully,realizing the ultro lightweight and continuous large deformation behavior.