Dielectric electro active polymer incremental actuator driven by multiple high-voltage bi-directional DC-DC converters

This paper presents driving circuit for a recently invented dielectric electro active polymer (DEAP) incremental actuator. The basic operation of such an actuator is bio-inspired from the movement of an inchworm. The actuator consists of three electrically isolated, and mechanically connected capacitive sub-actuators. It needs to be driven by three high voltage (~2.5 kV) DC-DC converters, to achieve the linear incremental motion. The topology used for this application is a bi-directional flyback DC-DC converter. The control of the incremental actuator involves, implementation of digital controller used for controlling charge and discharge sequences of the individual sub-actuators, and monitoring and adjustment of the output voltages of three high voltage DC-DC converters to provide over-voltage protection capability. Three power stages of the proposed converter were experimentally tested. The experimental results and efficiency measurements are shown.