An electronic driver for improving the open and closed loop electro-mechanical response of Dielectric Elastomer actuators

Actuators based on Dielectric Elastomers are a promising technology in robotic and mechatronic applications. The overall actuator performances are influenced by the non-linear and highly coupled electrical and mechanical behavior of the employed materials. To date, the practical electro-mechanical response and controllability of actuators based on Dielectric Elastomers are limited by the inadequacy of the employed driving circuits, which are based on voltage-regulated converters. In this paper, first a novel activation strategy is proposed for Dielectric Elastomer actuators, which is based on a custom electronic driver derived from the flyback transformer topology. Second, two closed-loop controllers employing the proposed electronic driver are presented and compared for the accurate and fast regulation of the position of Dielectric Elastomer actuators. Experimental results are reported which show that the proposed electronic driver outperforms the traditional driving circuits in terms of energy efficiency, fast open-loop actuator activation and good closed-loop actuator controllability.