TY - JOUR
T1 - Wireless Powered Dielectric Elastomer Actuator
AU - Chen, Lai
AU - Sasatani, Takuya
AU - Or, Keung
AU - Nishikawa, Satoshi
AU - Kawahara, Yoshihiro
AU - Niiyama, Ryuma
AU - Kuniyoshi, Yasuo
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received February 24, 2021; accepted June 22, 2021. Date of publication July 14, 2021; date of current version July 29, 2021. This letter was recommended for publication by Associate Editor J. Rossiter and Editor C. Laschi upon evaluation of the reviewers’ comments. This work was supported by JST ERATO under Grant JPMJER1501 and in part by JSPS KAKENHI under Grants JP18H05466 and JP20K19890. (Corresponding author: Lai Chen.) Lai Chen, Keung Or, Satoshi Nishikawa, Ryuma Niiyama, and Ya-suo Kuniyoshi are with the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (e-mail: chenlai@ isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp; or@isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp; nisikawa@isi.imi.i.u-tokyo. ac.jp; niiyama@isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp; kuniyosh@isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - The need for cable connection with soft robotic systems suppresses the benefits granted by their softness and flexibility. Such systems can be untethered by equipping batteries or by relying on non-electrical actuation mechanisms. However, these approaches cannot simultaneously support long-term and intelligent operations. This research examines a proposed wireless soft actuator based on wireless power transfer (WPT) and dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) technology, thereby realizing soft robomore diversified application and long-term locomotion. A compact conical DEA fabrication process is presented with 6 mm periodic linear output and design of a lightweight WPT receiver that weighs only 13 g integrated with a driver circuit. Evaluation results show that this system remotely powers the DEA and the intelligent peripheral circuits for system control. Furthermore, our design seamlessly bridges the WPT system, power-efficient in low-voltage output conditions, and the DEA, which requires high-voltage input (kV) for deformation, by leveraging high-voltage boost-converters. Experimentally obtained results demonstrate untethered DEA operation at 170 mm from the transmitter. Also, we demonstrated applying this DEA as a wireless pump.
AB - The need for cable connection with soft robotic systems suppresses the benefits granted by their softness and flexibility. Such systems can be untethered by equipping batteries or by relying on non-electrical actuation mechanisms. However, these approaches cannot simultaneously support long-term and intelligent operations. This research examines a proposed wireless soft actuator based on wireless power transfer (WPT) and dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) technology, thereby realizing soft robomore diversified application and long-term locomotion. A compact conical DEA fabrication process is presented with 6 mm periodic linear output and design of a lightweight WPT receiver that weighs only 13 g integrated with a driver circuit. Evaluation results show that this system remotely powers the DEA and the intelligent peripheral circuits for system control. Furthermore, our design seamlessly bridges the WPT system, power-efficient in low-voltage output conditions, and the DEA, which requires high-voltage input (kV) for deformation, by leveraging high-voltage boost-converters. Experimentally obtained results demonstrate untethered DEA operation at 170 mm from the transmitter. Also, we demonstrated applying this DEA as a wireless pump.
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U2 - 10.1109/LRA.2021.3097271
DO - 10.1109/LRA.2021.3097271
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85110883600
VL - 6
SP - 7278
EP - 7284
JO - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
JF - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
SN - 2377-3766
IS - 4
M1 - 9484851
ER -