A Review of Dielectric Elastomer Generator Systems

Dielectric elastomer generator systems (DEGSs) are a class of electrostatic soft-transducers capable of converting oscillating mechanical power from different sources into usable electricity. Over the past years, a diversity of DEGSs has been conceived, integrated, and tested featuring diverse topologies and implementation characteristics tailored on different applications. Herein, the recent advances on DEGSs are reviewed and illustrated in terms of design of hardware architectures, power electronics, and control, with reference to the different application targets, including large-scale systems such as ocean wave energy converters, and small-scale systems such as human motion or ambient vibration energy harvesters. Finally, challenges and perspectives for the advancement of DEGSs are identified and discussed.