Novel actuators for haptic displays based on electroactive polymers

After a wrap-up in the human physiology and an overview on physical principles, this paper introduces four novel types of actuators for haptic feedback devices based on electroactive polymers, which were developed and evaluated for their suitability for haptic feedback devices. The electroactive polymers show many promising properties, such as big expansion, high frequency range and big force exertion for instance. Unfortunately they are still in the fledgling state and are not available on the market yet. The actuators presented in this paper are a contribution to the haptic and to the electro active polymer researchers community.