TRITON SYSTEMS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: HR001119S0035-19

TRITON SYSTEMS, INC. — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Defense.

Amount
$224,697
Agency
Department of Defense · Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Program / Phase
SBIR · Phase I
Topic
HR001119S0035-19
Solicitation
DARPA HR001119S0035-19
NAICS
Place of performance
MA
Period
2020-01-08 → 2020-10-12

Description

Microrobots offer the potential for dramatically improved capability in a wide variety of fields, such as search and rescue, manufacturing, and medicine. Key to the performance of microrobots are the actuators that convert energy into mechanical motion. Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are particularly promising as they offer a strong combination of large maximum strain, maximum pressure, good elastic energy density, and fast cycle speed. One of the main limitations of DEAs, however, is the high voltages required for actuation. Triton proposes to develop fiber DEAs for use in microrobotics that will have significantly reduced voltage requirements, flexible actuation, and diameters that will meet the requirements of the program. We will demonstrate a scalable fabrication process for fiber DEAs and verify their performance.