Soft robotics is a field of robotic system design characterized by materials and structures that exhibit large-scale deformation, high compliance, and rich multifunctionality. The incorporation of soft and deformable structures endows soft robotic systems with the compliance and resiliency that makes them well adapted for unstructured and dynamic environments. Although actuation mechanisms for soft robots vary widely, soft electrostatic transducers such as dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) and hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators have demonstrated promise due to their muscle-like performance and capacitive self-sensing capabilities. Despite previous efforts to implement self-sensing in electrostatic transducers by overlaying sinusoidal low-voltage signals, these designs still require sensing high-voltage signals, requiring bulky components that prevent integration with miniature untethered soft robots. We present a circuit design that eliminates the need for any high-voltage sensing components, thereby facilitating the design of simple low cost circuits using off-the-shelf components. Using this circuit, we perform simultaneous sensing and actuation for a range of electrostatic transducers including circular DEAs and HASEL actuators and demonstrate accurate estimated displacements with errors <4%. We further develop this circuit into a compact and portable system that couples high voltage actuation, sensing, and computation as a prototype toward untethered multifunctional soft robotic systems. Finally, we demonstrate the capabilities of our self-sensing design through feedback control of a robotic arm powered by Peano-HASEL actuators.

中文翻译：

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用于软静电传感器的电容式自感应和闭环控制的小型化电路

软机器人是机器人系统设计领域，其特点是材料和结构表现出大尺寸变形、高柔顺性和丰富的多功能性。软和可变形结构的结合赋予软机器人系统以顺应性和弹性，使其能够很好地适应非结构​​化和动态环境。尽管软机器人的驱动机制差异很大，但诸如介电弹性体致动器 (DEA) 和液压放大自愈式静电 (HASEL) 致动器等软静电传感器由于其类似肌肉的性能和电容式自感应能力而显示出前景。尽管以前通过叠加正弦低压信号在静电换能器中实现自感应，但这些设计仍然需要感应高压信号，需要笨重的组件，以防止与微型无绳软机器人集成。我们提出了一种无需任何高压传感元件的电路设计，从而有助于使用现成的元件设计简单的低成本电路。使用该电路，我们对一系列静电传感器（包括圆形 DEA 和 HASEL 致动器）执行同时传感和驱动，并展示准确的估计位移，误差 <4%。我们进一步将该电路开发成一个紧凑的便携式系统，该系统将高压驱动、传感和计算结合起来，作为无束缚多功能软机器人系统的原型。最后，我们通过对由 Peano-HASEL 执行器提供动力的机械臂进行反馈控制来展示我们的自我感应设计的能力。