SOFT ROBOTS WITH TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZED DESIGN AND NETWORKED DIELECTRIC ELASTOMER ACTUATORS

Abstract

Soft robots, largely constructed out of soft materials and capable of undergoing large deformation, have shown great potential for operating within unstructured environment. This thesis mainly addresses two issues. The first one is to develop robust and reliable soft electroactive actuators. A network of inflated dielectric elastomer actuators is proposed, with the advantages to be highly deformable and continuously controllable. The networked actuators are able to produce programmable deformations, showing promise for refreshable tactile/Braille display. The second issue concerns an automatic design and fabrication approach for soft robots. By recasting the design of a soft body as a topology optimization problem, a soft cable-driven gripper is synthesized, capable of handling a large range of unknown objects of different shapes and weights. This work represents an important step toward leveraging the full potential of the freeform design space to generate novel soft robots.