High‐Speed Rotary Motor for Multidomain Operations Driven by Resonant Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Abstract

The motion of rotation is ubiquitous in daily life and industry. Compared with electromagnet motors, smart‐material‐based rotary motors may exhibit more flexibility, robustness, and adaptability. Herein, a lightweight, compact dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) rotary motor with remarkable performance is reported. The motor is driven by a multilayered, slightly‐prestretched (<10%) dielectric elastomer (DE) composite membrane which consists of low‐loss silicone as the DE layers and single‐walled carbon nanotube as electrodes. When operating at frequencies around its resonance, it achieves a maximum rotating speed of 2,850 rpm (to the best of the authors' knowledge, the fastest among all reported DEA rotary motors so far), torque of 0.655 mN m, and power of 34.7 mW with optimized transmission parameters. To demonstrate the motor's practical application, an off‐the‐shelf air vehicle propeller is driven by the motor, and a lift of 26 mN (1.54 times the DEA membrane's own weight) is obtained. An underwater robot driven by a water propeller is designed and a high speed of 175 mm s−1 (1.58 bl s−1) is obtained. The DEA rotary motor of this work paves a new way for driving agile robots in multidomain operations.

Keywords

• dielectric elastomer actuator
• multidomain
• rotary motor
• smart composite microstructure
• underwater robot