Recent advances in miniaturized actuators and sensors have enabled the development of cooperative systems, in which a complex global task is achieved through the joint collaboration of several microunits. Achieving system miniaturization while maintaining the desired actuation/sensor and cooperative functionality, however, is generally quite challenging from a practical point of view. Smart material transducers based on dielectric elastomer (DE) membranes represent a technology with great potential for the design of high-performance microactuator systems. By designing a miniaturized array of DE taxels, their simultaneous actuation and sensing capabilities can be used to develop large deformation, energy-efficient, multi-functional, and cooperative systems. In addition, the high flexibility of DE material makes the developed system highly suitable for new application fields, such as wearables and soft robotics. To properly design, optimize, and control cooperative DE systems, accurate mathematical models need to be developed first. In this paper, we present a novel physics-based model for an array of three DE actuator taxels. Such a model represents the first step towards the development, optimization, and control of a complex cooperative matrix actuator. Through the proposed model, it is possible to describe the coupling existing between the DE elements, and predict how such coupling effects influence the complete system performance. After presenting the model, the effect of geometrical parameters on the spatial coupling response is studied by means of numerical simulations.
Modeling and Simulation of an Array of Dielectric Elestomeric Actuator Membranes
