Our DEA team won the EAP In-Action Demonstration Award Finalist at the SPIE Smart Structures + NDE 2024

Soft Materials Research Laboratory has developed two distinctive electroactive polymers for haptic applications: a multi-line Braille display and a haptic device. The bistable electroactive polymer is stiff at ambient temperature, but highly compliant and stretchable with consistent resistance above its transition temperature (~40 ºC). This enables localized electrode heating to selectively activate specific Braille cells to depict Braille characters. A functional prototype Braille device will be demonstrated. Meanwhile, the processable, high-performance dielectric elastomer is capable of dynamic, large-strain actuation. We will also showcase a haptic device based on stacked dielectric elastomer films, capable of generating various haptic force patterns.