A bio-inspired semi-active vibration isolator with variable-stiffness dielectric elastomer: Design and modeling

This paper proposes a bio-inspired semi-active vibration isolator with the dielectric elastomer based variable stiffness element for the vibration suppression of the free-floating spacecraft. A theoretical model for the dielectric elastomer stiffness is developed and validated by the experimental data. The parametric dependence of the mechanical stiffness on the applied voltage, pre-stretch of the elastomer and dielectric material properties is...