Klug, Florian ; Solano Arana, Susana ; Förster-Zügel, Florentine ; Schlaak, Helmut F. (2018)
Design of artificial muscles based on dielectric elastomers for soft exosuits to support grasping motion.
EuroEAP 2018 Eighth international conference on Electromechanically Active Polymer (EAP) transducers & artificial muscles. Lyon, France (5-6 June 2018)
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Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)

The aims of development for wearable robots so far have been increased forces with high precision of motions. Therefore, these robots such as exoskeletons have mostly been built with rigid structures substituting the human joints to implement classical and precise control strategies known from the industrial automation. Since the complexity and weight of these systems is rising rapidly with increasing degrees of freedom, the next generation of wearable robots use compliant interfaces to interact with the human body. By using natural biomechanics instead of rigid structures, these so called exosuits are lightweight, don't constrain the wearers joints and enhance its safety. Nevertheless, most exosuits are based on traditional actuator principles, which requires a transition from soft structures to stiff actuators. To exploit the full potential of soft exosuits there is the need for innovative and compliant actuator principles. Thus, this work presents the design of cylindrical artificial muscles based on dielectric elastomers (DE) with high force and displacement. Presented results were taken from a numerical transducer model in ANSYS. Later, the actuators will be integrated in a grasping glove to assist those with reduced muscle activity due to physical or neurological disorders. By taking advantage of the sensory abilities of DE, an additional motion monitoring can be performed. These information can be used to control the glove and also to monitor rehabilitation processes.

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