An Architecture for the Semiautomatic Fabrication of Multilayer Stacked Contractile and Expanding Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

We present a semiautomatic manufacturing process that allows fabrication of macroscopic stack-like actuators from rolls of raw dielectric elastomer material. The proposed geometry and fabrication procedure incorporates thin films of dielectric material, allowing a drastic reduction of the typical high voltages required by dielectric elastomer actuators. Moreover, the semiautomatic process overcomes many traditional manufacture difficulties, such as the handling and packaging of dielectric films, and power distribution to the compliant electrodes of the actuator. Furthermore, the resultant multilayer devices can be used either as contractile or expanding actuators.