Microrobot actuated by soft actuators based on dielectric elastomer

In this paper a microrobot, mimicking annelid animals like the earthworm, is presented. The robot is composed of several ring-like segments. Each segment is able to generate three degree-of-freedom motions such as pan/tilt/up-down respectively, and it is actuated by three soft actuators located equidistantly along the circumferential direction. The soft actuator, called antagonistically-driven linear actuator (ANTLA), is based on polymer dielectrics and has muscle-like characteristics capable of performing motions such as forward/backward/controllable compliance. In this paper, the basic concept of the actuator is briefly reviewed and the robot, including the ring-like segment, is explained in detail with demonstrations.