Evaluation of possibilities of electroactive polymers application in bio-inspired adaptronic system

Abstract

The paper presents an original design of 3-segments adaptronic analogue of units of mammal's vertebrae based on 8 actuators using dielectric electroactive polymer (DEAP). The way of preparation took into account the tendency of the DEAP material to local breakdowns, caused by degradation of the internal structure. The cross effects of phase response on a given electrical stimulus under high voltage were identified as well. The degrees of freedom of the analogue segments were determined, taking into account biological significance of vertebral endplates which a simplified form is included in the model. The work is to propose a bio-inspired techniques to build robots with many degrees of freedom using DEAP materials. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.