An Electrostatic Linear Actuator Developed as a Biomimicking Muscle (Force Generated by a Two-Dimensional Integrated Actuator)

We developed an electrostatic linear actuator for use as an artificial muscle which consists of parallel-plate capacitors and a slider made of dielectric material. A unit actuator with one pair of electrodes generated the force of 6 millinewtons. In order for the actuator to generate a large output force, we made a two-dimensional integrated actuator with twenty pairs of electrodes whose aspect ratio (distance between two electrodes of capacitor/length of electrode) was 0.8 and width was 34 mm. It was confirmed that the experimental values of force agree well with the theoretical ones. The maximum output force of 42.3 mN was generated at the supply voltage of 200 V.