Electroactive polymers as soft robotic actuators: electromechanical modeling and identification

Biologically inspired robotic applications have recently received significant attention due to developments in novel materials and actuators with an operation principle similar to the natural muscles’. Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators, also known as artificial muscles, possess extraordinary properties such as low efficiency consumption, compliance, bio-compatibility and ability to be miniaturized. Although several methodologies have been proposed for modeling and identification of their quasi-static bending behavior, a negligibly small attention has been given to their dynamic behavior. In this paper, we, therefore, report on their electromechanical modeling and parameter identification. We model the tri-layer EAP actuators as a soft robotic actuator consisting of a significant number of rigid links connected with compliant revolute joints. The experimental and numerical results presented suggest that the soft robotics approach is an effective way to model the EAP actuator and subsequently identify its dynamic parameters accurately. We have previously employed the same soft robotic approach to estimate the whole shape of the EAP actuator as a function of time.