Sensing frequency design for capacitance feedback of dielectric elastomers

• Capacitance measurement of dielectric elastomers is frequency dependent.
• This is due to a high interconnect resistance between adjacent segments.
• High sensing frequencies underestimates the capacitance measurement.

Dielectric elastomers, also known as artificial muscles have produced many biomimetic robots. One advantage is their ability to provide feedback through capacitance. However when the sensing frequency is too high, the measured capacitance can underestimate the true value. In this paper, the measured capacitance of dielectric elastomer stacked and rolled configurations were shown to reduce with increasing sensing frequency. A transmission line electrical model linked this to the result of high interconnect and sheet resistances of the electrodes. A design methodology to help determine the working limits of sensing frequency is presented.