Electroactive Polymers (EAPs) have a great potential to provide smart solutions to engineering problems in fields such
as robotics, medical devices, power generation, actuators and sensors. This is because they yield some important
characteristics that are advantageous over conventional types of actuators, like: lower weight, faster response, higher
power density and quieter operation. Controlling the amount of force exerted during an interaction between an actuator
and an object is crucial for certain applications, such as those involving a human and an actuator. To date there is little
research into the force control of EAPs or their possible applications that utilize force control. This paper presents a realtime
nonlinear force controller for a Rolled type Dielectric Electroactive Polymer Actuator (DEA). To increase the
response of the actuator, a control algorithm and an inverse model were derived using the actuator's nonlinear behavior.
The force controller presented can enhance the safety and performance of this unique family of actuators, allowing for
more advanced and efficient applications.
Quality, amplitude and frequency of the interaction forces between a human and an actuator are essential traits for haptic
applications. A variety of Electro-Active Polymer (EAP) based actuators can provide these characteristics
simultaneously with quiet operation, low weight, high power density and fast response. This paper demonstrates a rolled
Dielectric Elastomer Actuator (DEA) being used as a telepresence device in a heart beat measurement application. In the
this testing, heart signals were acquired from a remote location using a wireless heart rate sensor, sent through a network
and DEA was used to haptically reproduce the heart beats at the medical expert's location. A series of preliminary human
subject tests were conducted that demonstrated that a) DE based haptic feeling can be used in heart beat measurement
tests and b) through subjective testing the stiffness and actuator properties of the EAP can be tuned for a variety of
applications.
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