Patent ID: 11923790
Assignee: SEIKI CHIBA
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A dielectric elastomer drive system comprising:
a dielectric elastomer drive unit including a dielectric elastomer layer and a pair of electrode layers flanking the dielectric elastomer layer;
a power supply unit that applies voltage to the dielectric elastomer drive unit;
a charge removal unit that temporarily stores a charge stored in the dielectric elastomer drive unit; and
a power storage unit that stores the charge temporarily stored in the charge removal unit; wherein
the charge removal unit is configured with a capacitor having a capacitance larger than that of the dielectric elastomer drive unit and connected in parallel to the pair of electrode layers that removes a charge stored in the dielectric elastomer drive unit and functions as a step-down circuit that lowers voltage for charging the power storage unit with respect to voltage of the charge removal unit of when the charge is stored from the dielectric elastomer drive unit;
the capacitor in the charge removal unit has the capacitance that is selected such that the voltage applied to the power storage unit has a desired value; and
the system is configured to operate the power storage unit and the dielectric elastomer drive unit in parallel to allow the former to store the charge from the charge removal unit while the latter is elongated.