Bioinspired Venus flytrap : A dielectric elastomer actuated soft gripper

Venus flytrap is a special kind of plant that has the ability to grip the insects and make them be trapped in their leaves and thorns. In this paper, a bio-inspired gripper is designed and tested to imitate the gripping process of the Venus flytrap. The gripper is driven by a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA), which contains two-leaf functional structure aiming to mimic the leaf closing of Venus flytrap. The thorns, which are attached on each leaf, help to seal and block the closed DEA. The gripper is controlled and by the voltage. When the voltage is applied, the DEA will have the expansion and open the two-leaf structure. When the voltage is revoked, the DEA will come back to the original closed status. Experimental results demonstrate that the designed gripper presents the fast closing speed at 0.25s, the open range at 32 degrees and the agile gripping ability.