View article

As a typical electroactive polymer, dielectric elastomer can be used in the research of actuators, sensors, and soft robots. The cone actuator, as a representative dielectric elastomer actuator, suffers from the limitation of deformation range. In this work, an antagonistic cone dielectric elastomer actuator with large deformation range is exhibited. A theoretical model is derived to design geometric parameters and explain the deformation mechanism of the antagonistic cone dielectric elastomer actuator. Comparison between theoretical and experimental results shows that the theoretical model is suitable for the prediction of the performance of the actuator. Inspired by the human heart, the pump is developed by the actuator, and its performance is systematically investigated through experiments. It is hoped that this work can play a guiding role in the development and application of the antagonistic cone dielectric elastomer …