The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 14, 2014
Filed:
Feb. 18, 2010
Iain Alexander Anderson, Auckland, NZ;
Emilio Patricio Calius, Auckland, NZ;
Todd Alan Gisby, Auckland, NZ;
Benjamin Marc O'brien, Auckland, NZ;
Shane Xie, Auckland, NZ;
Iain Alexander Anderson, Auckland, NZ;
Emilio Patricio Calius, Auckland, NZ;
Todd Alan Gisby, Auckland, NZ;
Benjamin Marc O'Brien, Auckland, NZ;
Shane Xie, Auckland, NZ;
Auckland UniServices Limited, Auckland, NZ;
Abstract
A system and method is provided for determining the capacitance between electrodes of an artificial muscle or dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA). The method comprises measuring the voltage difference between the electrodes of the DEA, the first derivative of that voltage with respect to time, and the total instantaneous current through the DEA, then calculating the capacitance of the DEA as the difference between the total instantaneous current through the DEA and the product of the voltage between the electrodes and an error term, divided by the first derivative of the voltage between the electrodes with respect to time. The capacitance may then be used to derive estimates of the leakage current, charge upon the DEA, and/or the physical state of the DEA, thereby implementing self-sensing to allow closed-loop feedback control of DEA actuation.