Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are a promising soft actuator technology for robotics. Adding robotic functionalities—folding, variable stiffness, and adhesion—into their actuator design is a novel method to create functionalized robots with simplified actuator configurations. We first propose a foldable actuator that has a simple antagonistic DEA configuration allowing bidirectional actu...

abstract: this paper presents dynamic modelling and control of a linear prismatic series of elastic actuator. the capability of generating large torques is why this actuator is increasingly used in human-assistive robotic systems. due to having human in the loop, the actuator requires precise control. a fractional pid controller known for its improved performance is used for the control, due to...

Spiders rely on a hydraulic system to stretch their legs but use muscles make flex. The compound drive of hydraulics and muscle makes an integrate dexterous structure with powerful locomotion abilities, which perfectly meets the primary requirements advanced robots. Inspired by this hydraulics-muscle co-drive joint, novel flexible joint actuator was proposed its driving characteristics were pre...

The technique used to control the airflow is based on the electro-hydrodynamic actuator which is also called plasma actuator. This actuator ensures the airflow control thanks to the electric wind created by the electrical corona discharge. This ionic wind is developed at the profile surface tangential to the initial free airflow so that it has a significant effect on the boundary layer flow. Th...

Automating the lunch box packaging is a challenging task due to the high deformability and large individual differences in shape and physical property of food materials. Soft robotic grippers showed potentials to perform such tasks. In this paper, we presented four pneumatic soft actuators made of different materials and different fabrication methods and compared their performances through a se...

This paper reports on a multi-purpose two-axis micropositioner with sub-nanometer position sensing for precise feedback control. Along each axis it has an electrothermal actuator, a capacitive position sensor, and a displacement amplifier that provides a gain of 3.37 for the sensor. It is fabricated from custom SOI wafers using dry etching, and each component is electrically and thermally isola...

This paper reports on area-efficient, ultrawideband, MEMS-reconfigurable directional couplers, whose coupling is tuned by mechanically changing the geometry of 3D-micromachined coupled transmission lines, utilizing integrated MEMS electrostatic actuators. Devices have been fabricated in an SOI RF MEMS process. Furthermore, to the best knowledge of the authors, we report for the first time on co...

Abstract This paper reports on a multi-purpose two-axis micropositioner with sub-nanometer position sensing for precise feedback control. Along each axis it has an electrothermal actuator, a capacitive position sensor and a displacement amplifier that provides a gain of 3.37 for the sensor. It is fabricated from custom SOI wafers using dry etching, and each component is electrically and thermal...

This paper investigates manipulation tasks with arrays of mi-croelectromechanical structures (MEMS). We develop a model for the mechanics of microactuators and a theory of sensorless, parallel manipulation, and we describe eecient algorithms for their evaluation. The theory of limit surfaces ooers a purely geometric characterization of micro-scale contacts between actuator and moving object, wh...