Electrostatic Zipping Actuators with a Double-Helical Structure

Abstract

Artificial muscles are key for creating soft and bio-mimetic robots. Despite substantial advances, current actuator technologies are still limited in their form factor and struggle to achieve high power and energy density while being efficient. This thesis focuses on a new actuator design that could potentially improve on those key metrics. We present an electrostatic zipping actuator with a double-helical structure. The thesis reports the inspiration, design, fabrication, testing, and evaluation of this electrostatic zipping actuator with double-helical electrodes. The topics of material selection, fabrication, insulation, and testing of various actuator prototypes are discussed. The challenges faced in the development process are described, and potential solutions for future research are discussed. The evaluation results are documented and compared with the project’s initial goals. After overcoming various challenges in the design, fabrication, insulation, and testing of the actuators, the latest prototype was able to achieve active contraction and generate useful work from electrostatics. With limited time and resources, the recorded actuator performance did not reach the initial goal of surpassing the state-of-the-art actuators with 30% strain at 5N of contraction force but had the potential to when discussed and calculated in detail. Finally, potential pathways for future improvements are described. This report intends to provide guidelines for future researchers to continue the development of this promising actuator concept and eventually integrate such actuators into robotic applications. After the eventual optimization of this actuator concept, versatile bio-mimetic robots with significantly improved efficiency and reduced complexity can be built and bring humanity into the next era of human-robot interactions.