Electrostatically stricted polymers (ESSP)

Chang Liu; Yoseph Bar-Cohen; Sean P. Leary

doi:10.1117/12.349701

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28 May 1999 Electrostatically stricted polymers (ESSP)

Chang Liu, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Sean P. Leary

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Proceedings Volume 3669, Smart Structures and Materials 1999: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.349701
Event: 1999 Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials, 1999, Newport Beach, CA, United States

Abstract

Miniature, lightweight, miser actuators that operate similar to biological muscles can be used to develop robotic devices with unmatched capabilities and impact many technology areas. Electroactive polymers (EAP) offer the potential to producing such actuators and their main attractive feature is their ability to induce relatively large bending or longitudinal strain. Generally, these materials produce a relatively low force and the applications that can be considered at the current state of the art are relatively limited. While improved material are being developed there is a need for methods to develop longitudinal actuators that can contract similar to muscles. In addition, it is desirable to have these actuators in a fiber form that can be bundled to provide the necessary characteristics of stiffness, fracture toughness, resilience and large force actuation. To address this need efforts were made to develop both the material basis as well as the electromechanical modeling of the actuator.

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Chang Liu, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, and Sean P. Leary "Electrostatically stricted polymers (ESSP)", Proc. SPIE 3669, Smart Structures and Materials 1999: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices, (28 May 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.349701

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