Dielectric elastomers minimum energy structure

Yet another interesting DE actuator configuration, dubbed DEMES, which stands for Dielectric Elastomer Minimum Energy Structure, has been introduced by Kofod et al. [244, 245] and further developed by O Brien et al. [246]. This type of actuator relies on a thin bendable frame. The frames are designed such that, when a prestrained DE layer is fixed to the frame, the forces exerted by the prestrained DE layer will cause the frame to curl until the forces balance the result is that the device is curved in the equilibrium rest state. Upon actuation the DE layer will relax causing the actuator to uncurl until it reaches the equilibrium actuated state, which will vary with the applied field. 

O Brien B, Gisby T, Callus E, Xie S, Anderson I (2009) FEA of dielectric elastomer minimum energy structures as a tool for biomimetic design. EAPAD 2009, Proc SPIE 7287 728706-1-728706-11. doi 10.1117/12.815818... 

Araromi OA, Gavrilovich I, Shintake J et al (2014) RoUable multisegment dielectric elastomer minimum energy structures for a deployable microsatellite gripper. lEEE/ASME Trans Mechatron 20 438-446... 

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