Description
Due to their inherent properties, dielectric elastomers depict a promising technology with high potential for the use in elastic as well as soft mechatronic applications. To establish this technology as a new generation of actuators and sensors, next to research work in material science and suitable manufacturing processes, also novel adaptive power electronics concepts are necessary, which enable the integration of dielectric elastomers in different applications. Therefore, the main research content of this dissertation is the investigation of scalable, universally applicable power electronic methods as well as the solution oriented pointing out of technology related challenges. Thereby, the challenges are regarding the application integration of dielectric elastomer actuators and sensors in different application areas. The addressed research focus in this work is divided into the three operating modes, the actuatory, sensory and the sensorimotor usage of dielectric elastomers. Power electronics concepts are derived and designed for each operation mode. Furthermore, their implementation on dielectric elastomer actuators and sensors is tested and evaluated. The results show that different application cases are addressable with the presented power electronics concepts of separated and combined operation modes. With the established power electronics, actuators can be simultaneously used as sensors, with which external forces can be registered and the actuators’ or in future even the system’s state can be determined without external sensors. Conversely, the realization of active feedback for dielectric elastomers primarily used as sensors is also conceivable.
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