Modeling of Dielectric Gel Using Multi-physics Coupling Theory

Gel is an organic mixture of polymer network and solvents. Owing to the large amount of solvents, gel is very soft and self-compatible. This chapter introduces dielectric gel, where both the polymer network and solvents are non-conductive. The mechanism of voltage-induced deformation in dielectric gel is explained with the physics of the solvent migration. Bending and creeping actuation in dielectric gel can also be induced using the design of electrode configuration. In the theory of dielectric gel, electro-chemo-mechanical quantities are coupled in a thermodynamics model, and the constitutive relations are obtained. The actuation model is implanted into several actuator cases to characterize their specific performances. Some examples of dielectric gel in robotics are illustrated. They include an amoeba robot, an artificial lens, and a soft exoskeleton, all showing dielectric gel a good candidate in soft robotics.