A Spring – Loaded Actuator Developed By DC 3481 Silicone / Polyaniline – Based Dielectric Polymer Film

Abstract

Dielectric polymer films play a significant role in soft robotics in actuator development. Silicone and acrylic materials are commonly used for creating dielectric polymer films with superior properties compared to other potential materials such as PVDF and Polyurethane. Published literature reports applying different fillers to enhance the electromechanical response of dielectric polymers. Starting with an already-reported novel dielectric polymer based on polyaniline/DC 3481 silicon, we report the fabrication and characterization of a spring-loaded actuator. Here we developed a simple spring-loaded actuator, and three different designs were used to optimize the actuator design. As per research outcomes, it can be concluded that paper tie-based clamping provides the best configuration for the actuator in terms of high deflection and low tendency to short-circuit. The developed actuator renders the maximum deflection of 4.19 mm at 2 kV voltage, and the actuation time is approximately 115 s. The proposed actuator is superior to many reported actuators in terms of maximum deflection and corresponding voltage. The proposed actuator and the corresponding dielectric polymer thus have potential applications in developing actuators for haptics with comparatively high deflection.