Material characterization of dielectric elastomers for soft actuators

Abstract

Because the demand for soft actuators and soft robots is increasing in space engineering, medical care, and others, the research on dielectric elastomers has been active in recent years. In this study, to develop better performance dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), viscoelastic and tensile properties of elastomers were measured using a dynamic viscoelasticity tester and a tabletop tensile tester. It was confirmed that the strain-removed film of commercially available acrylic elastomer has excellent viscoelastic and mechanical properties compared to commercially available materials. Furthermore, circular DEA was fabricated, and their electrodynamic properties and electric field response were evaluated. It was found that the material with the largest deformation as a circular DEA is acrylic DE with strain removed, and it is also superior in terms of both electric field strength and deformation.