My new colleague has artificial muscles: a DEA based approach for inherently compliant robotic systems

When robots and human workers team up, safety should be ensured at all times. In order to improve safety of human–robot collaboration in hybrid manufacturing processes, many different types of compliant robotic drives, serial elastic actuators for instance, have been developed to date. However, most of them still consist of rigid mechanical components in combination with prevailing servo motor and thus bring several disadvantages such as poor power-to-weight ratio. This paper presents our solution approach for realization of biomimetic, inherently compliant artificial muscles based on dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). The artificial muscles based on DEAs distinguish themselves from conventional actuators through their favorable characteristics. They (a) work noiseless, (b) feature specific energy density comparable to human skeletal muscles and (c) are capable of storing or even recovering energy, and finally, (d) can adjust their geometry to meet with undefined and unstructured objects or environments. With remaining challenges overcome, the DEAs are expected to provide a significant contribution to safety of industrial robots collaborating with human workers.