Publications related to Influence of electric field, temperature, humidity, elastomer material, and encapsulation on the lifetime of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) under DC actuation

Permanently magnetized elastomer rotating actuator using traveling waves

We report a soft actuator that generates continuous rotation of an object placed on it by electromagnetically exciting circular travelling waves in a soft disk. The disk, that serves as the stator, is made of a stretchable composite consisting of segments ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2024

Alignment of ND3 molecules in dc-electric fields

Andreas Osterwalder, Junwen Zou, Viet Le Duc

The control of movement and orientation of gas-phase molecules has become the focus of many research areas in molecular physics. Here, ND3 molecules are polarized in a segmented, curved electrostatic guide and adiabatically aligned inside a rotatable mass ...

Aip Publishing2024

Automated all-functionals infrared and Raman spectra

Nicola Marzari, Lorenzo Bastonero

Infrared and Raman spectroscopies are ubiquitous techniques employed in many experimental laboratories, thanks to their fast and non-destructive nature able to capture materials' features as spectroscopic fingerprints. Nevertheless, these measurements freq ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Educational Soft Underwater Robot with an Electromagnetic Actuation

Robert Marius Hennig

As demonstrated by the Soft Robotics Toolkit Platform, compliant robotics pose an exciting educational opportunity. Underwater robotics using soft undulating fins is an expansive research topic with applications such as exploration of underwater life or re ...

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc2024

Pyroresistive response of percolating conductive polymer composites

Claudio Grimaldi

The pyroresistive response of conductive polymer composites (CPCs) has attracted much interest because of its potential applications in many electronic devices requiring a significant responsiveness to changes in external physical parameters such as temper ...

Amer Physical Soc2024

Carbon based printed electrodes for DEAs: study of pad, inkjet, and stencil printing

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Armando Matthieu Walter, Simon Holzer

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) have raised interest due to their remarkable capabilities in various applications, such as soft robotics, haptic feedback systems, and biomedical devices. To harness the full potential of DEAs, the choice of the electr ...

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)2024

Inversing the actuation cycle of dielectric elastomer actuators for a facial prosthesis

Paolo Germano, Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Alexis Boegli, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Quentin Philippe Mario De Menech

Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs) are a type of smart material described as compliant capacitors. They show impressive performances as soft actuators, such as a high strain and fast response. Nonetheless, replicating natural muscle function with DEAs h ...

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)2024

Edible Soft Actuators based on Konjac Glucomannan for Underwater Operation

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Ryo Kanno, Bokeon Kwak, Markéta Pankhurst

Soft robots are being increasingly developed and deployed for underwater applications such as exploration, monitoring, and rescue owing to their innate compliance, mechanical and chemical stability, and waterproof properties. However, they are still predom ...

2024

Frequency response of fiber reinforced DEAs

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Markus Koenigsdorff

Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs) have emerged as versatile and promising devices for a multitude of applications, including soft robotics, haptic interfaces, and artificial muscles. DEAs are an interesting soft actuator technology due to their high en ...

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)2024

Measuring electrical properties in semiconductor devices by pixelated STEM and off-axis electron holography (or convergent beams vs. plane waves)

Victor Carle Adrien Boureau

We demonstrate the use of both pixelated differential phase contrast (DPC) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and off-axis electron holography (EH) for the measurement of electric fields and assess the advantages and limitations of each techn ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Characterization of low-temperature plasmas generated by dielectric barrier discharges for bacterial inactivation

Lorenzo Ibba

Low-temperature plasmas (LTPs) at atmospheric pressure hold great promise for disinfection and sterilization applications. When compared to traditional sterilization technologies like autoclaving, LTPs may offer several benefits, including reduced energy c ...

EPFL2024

Direct observations of X-rays produced by upward positive lightning

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga, Thomas Chaumont

X-rays have been observed in natural downward cloud-to-ground lightning for over 20 years and in rocket-triggered lightning for slightly less. In both cases, this energetic radiation has been detected during the stepped and dart leader phases of downward n ...

Nature Publishing Group2024

Additively manufactured stretchable zipping electrostatic actuators

Giulio Grasso

The use of soft and stretchable materials allows the development of adaptive robotic systems and human-machine interfaces that are more natural and comfortable to interact with. One of the application fields that benefits the most from these compliant mate ...

EPFL2024

High energy-density electrostatic actuators for soft robotics

Sylvain Thomas Schaller

This thesis reports high energy-density electrostatic actuators for use in soft robotics. This thesis has two main parts: a) a detailed study of electro-adhesion using microfabricated electrodes, and b) a flexi-ble fiber-shaped linear motor. Electro-adhesi ...

EPFL2024

Polarization-enhanced GaN Schottky barrier diodes: Ultra-thin InGaN for high breakdown voltage and low Ron

Elison de Nazareth Matioli, Alessandro Floriduz, Zheng Hao

In this work, we present a concept that leverages the strong piezoelectric polarization field in InGaN, which counteracts the external electric field at reverse bias. We show that despite the smaller InGaN band-gap and lower critical electric field, its st ...

2024

Soft Robotics: A Route to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity in Robotics

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes

Robotics is entering our daily lives. The discipline is increasingly crucial in fields such as agriculture, medicine, and rescue operations, impacting our food, health, and planet. At the same time, it is becoming evident that robotic research must embrace ...

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc2024

Filiform Variable Stiffness Technologies for Medical Robotics

Yegor Piskarev

In recent years, soft robotics has surged in applications like wearables, drones, smart fabrics, and medical instruments. Due to their compliance, these devices excel in tasks demanding dexterity and adaptability, such as manipulation, locomotion, crash re ...

EPFL2024

Advanced Silicon and SWIR Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes: Design, Simulation, and Characterization

Ekin Kizilkan

Low-level light detection with high spatial and timing accuracy is a growing area of interest by virtue of applications such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), biomedical imaging, time-resolved Raman spectroscopy, and quantum applications. Single-phot ...

EPFL2024

A review of the modeling approaches of the lightning M-component with special attention to their current and electric field characteristics

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Carlo Alberto Nucci, Mohammad Azadifar, Qi Li

In this paper, we present the characteristics of current, electric fields and modeling approaches of lightning M-component mode of charge transfer. We consider both the classical M-components (occurring after return strokes) and M-component-type ICC (Initi ...

Elsevier2023

Charging and Electric Field Effects on Hydrogen Molecules Physisorbed on Graphene

Klaus Kern, Shai Mangel, Alessio Scavuzzo, Tobias Wollandt

Molecular hydrogen adsorbed on graphene was investigated by analyzing rotational excitation spectra obtained with a gate-tunable scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Through the shift of the rotational excitation energy, the tunability of physisorbed H2 on ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023