Frequently Asked Questions

Soft robotics is a subfield of robotics that aims to reproduce the versatility of biological organisms without metals or rigid structures. By mimicking the way muscles, skin, and other natural tissues move, soft robots can safely interact with people, adapt to complex environments, and handle delicate objects without causing damage. One key focus of soft robotics is the development of muscle-like soft actuators that use flexible, deformable materials. Artimus Robotics offers leading soft actuator technologies that are electrically controlled, provide continuously variable output, operate at high speeds, and are virtually silent.

An artificial muscle is a soft actuator designed to imitate biological muscles’ ability to contract, expand, or bend using materials that respond to external stimuli like electricity or pressure—unlike traditional rigid components or motors. These actuators offer smoother and more adaptive motion, making them ideal for applications in robotics, prosthetics, and haptics. Artimus Robotics' Hydraulically Amplified Soft Electrostatic (HASEL) actuators take artificial muscles a step further. They consist of soft pouches filled with liquid dielectric (like oil) and coated with flexible electrodes. When voltage is applied, the electric field generates internal hydraulic pressure that deforms the pouch, producing motion. This structure enables muscle-like performance with striking benefits: high power-to-weight and lifelike responsiveness.

An actuator is any device that creates movement by converting energy into mechanical motion. In engineering, actuators take many forms; from the servo motors that roll down your car window to the valves that open and close automatically in HVAC systems, to the precise drives that position a robotic arm. Even the vibration in your phone comes from a tiny haptic actuator. Actuators aren’t just found in machines. In fact, our muscles are a great example of a high performance and highly adaptable actuator. While we don't call them "actuators" in the same way we do in engineering, they serve the same function: transforming stored calories into mechanical motion.

HASEL actuators are soft pouches filled with a liquid dielectric (oils) and covered by flexible electrodes. When a voltage is applied, one electrode becomes positively charged and the other negatively charged. The resulting electrostatic attraction pulls the electrodes together, squeezing the liquid into areas of the pouch not covered by electrodes. This movement of fluid changes the actuator’s shape, creating motion. By adjusting the shape and electrode layout, HASEL actuators can be designed for different motions, such as expansion, contraction, or bending, while maintaining precise control, fast response, and high energy efficiency.

HASEL actuators require high voltage DC power (3-8kV depending on actuator model and desired performance). We suggest that you only control HASEL actuators with our in-house designed power supply, which is specifically developed to power HASEL actuators.

We know how to spell, we promise. Not to be confused with the greek goddess Artemis, the founding team of Artimus Robotics took inspiration from its core technology, HASELs which provide artificial, muscle-like actuation. It's a mash-up of “artificial” and “muscle.”

Hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators are a commercialized soft robotic motion technology, featuring muscle-like performance, that spun out of the Keplinger Research Group at the University of Colorado Boulder and published in Science Magazine in 2018. The core inventors began working full-time on commercialization of the technology in 2020. To learn more, check out this short video below:

Artimus warranties that all new HV electronics will be free from manufacturers defects for one (1) year from date of arrival to you. Artimus will work with you to ensure that you are satisfied with your product over its lifespan. Please reach out to request a full terms and conditions of sale.

InefficiencyMotors lose efficiency at low speeds and small scale, which means heat to manage and power you don’t have to spare.The efficiency curveThe curve climbs with speed and peaks near the top of the range. Motors are only efficient in a narrow high-speed band. Fingers move slowly, so a motor in a finger spends its life in the worst part of that curve.The static caseHolding a grip is worse than moving. When a hand is simply holding, the motor is stalled: no motion, no mechanical work being done, but current still runs through the windings to produce holding torque. All of that becomes heat.Small motors have thin wire and little surface area to shed heat, so they get hot fast in exactly the state a hand spends most of its time in.High mechanical impedanceMechanical impedance is when an object is physically impeded (stopped from moving).Torque per mass, and what the gearbox costsN-m/kg is twist force per kilogram of actuator. A small motor on its own is weak for its weight. It spins fast but does not twist hard, which is the wrong trade for a finger joint that needs to move slowly and grip firmly.A 100:1 gearbox converts that speed into torque, and the deck’s numbers show the practical result: 0.2 to roughly 5 N-m/kg. Note that this is a 25x gain, not 100x, because the gearbox itself is metal and adds mass.Back-drivabilityBack-drivability is whether you can push on the output and have it move. Push on your own finger and it gives. Push on a finger driven through a 100:1 gearbox and it does not — the friction and the ratio mean your force at the fingertip barely registers at the motor.That matters for dexterity because a hand that cannot yield cannot handle an egg, cannot feel that an object is slipping, and cannot safely bump into something. Motor-driven hands compensate with force sensors and control software, which means more parts and more latency.Reflected inertiaReflected inertia is the motor’s own spinning mass as felt from the fingertip. Through a gearbox it scales with the square of the ratio, so at 100:1 the rotor’s inertia appears roughly 10,000 times larger at the finger.The finger feels heavy and sluggish to any outside force, and it is slow to stop or reverse. Same root cause as the back-drivability problem: the gearbox is a one-way street.