On the Kinematics of Parallel Mechanisms with Bi-stable Polymer Actuators

Binary robotic devices have been proposed to perform complex tasks. These systems do not require feedback and are very easy to control. Their kinematic performance approaches that of continuous devices as their degrees of freedom becomes large. To date, high DOF binary systems have not been demonstrated, largely due to actuator limitations. Recently, significant advances have been made with dielectric polymer actuators. Here it is shown that such actuators have the potential to make binary robotic devices practical. Two designs of a Binary Robotic Articulated Intelligent Device (BRAID) using dielectric polymer actuators are presented. The kinematic performance based on laboratory results and analysis is