A Robotic Testing Platform for Pipelined Discovery of Resilient Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Short lifetime under high electrical fields hinders the widespread robotic application of linear dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). Systematic scanning is difficult due to time-consuming per-sample testing and the high-dimensional parameter space affecting performance. To address this, we propose a parameter screening pipeline enabled by a novel testing robot capable of scanning DEA lifetime. The robot integrates electro-mechanical property measurement, programmable voltage input, and multi-channel testing capacity. Using it, we scanned the lifetime of Elastosil-based linear actuators across parameters including input voltage magnitude, frequency, electrode material concentration, and electrical connection filler. The selected parameter combinations improved operational lifetime under boundary operating conditions by up to 100% and were subsequently scaled up to achieve higher force and displacement output. The final product demonstrated resilience on a tethered modular, scalable quadruped walking robot prototype with payload carrying capacity ( $>$ 100% of its untethered body weight, and $>$ 700% of combined actuator weight). This work introduces a robotic DEA testing platform and demonstrates a systematic DEA lifetime-scanning pipeline, providing a foundation for future device-level self-driving laboratory development.