Facial reanimation
Facial paralysis is a highly burdening situation, which is associated with emotional distress and overall reduced quality of life. In patients who still suffer from paralysis after a period of observation or following medication, surgical methods are taken into consideration. Our team proposes a new, less invasive approach for dynamic facial reanimation post facial paralysis using soft artificial actuators. The proposed solution relies on the use of DEAs instead of biological muscles to restore mouth and more precisely smiling movement.
Artificial Bio-Bladder
The human bladder is an expandable muscular organ which stores urine and help in its flow control. Various diseases can occur that could prevent the bladder from a proper function. To develop new treatments, a better understanding and appropriate methods are needed. Therefore, an in-vitro artificial bladder is under developments which mimics the function of the bladder by stretching urothelial and smooth muscle cells cyclical.
Artificial urinary sphincter
Urinary Incontinence is a common and embarrassing problem that affects hundreds millions of people worldwide. Within the Center for Artificial Muscle, we are developing an Artificial Urinary Sphincter (AUS) based on DEAs.
Impedance pump as an additional support mechanism
DEA based soft pump could also be a solution for failing Fontan patients presenting a single heart ventricle. The requirements are quite different compared to the augmented aorta and the pumping principle must be thought out-of-the-box. We present an approach to bladeless, valveless soft pumping via dielectric elastomer actuators. The soft pump design is inspired by the embryonic heart mechanism, also known as an impedance pump.
First -in vivo- augmented aorta
Scientists from EPFL and University of Bern have successfully implanted – in vivo – their first artificial tubular muscle that augments the aorta and assists cardiac function in pumping blood.
Dielectric Elastomer Acuator Manufacturing
We have established a new process flow to manufacture multilayer actuators starting from the commercial Elastosil film (100 or 200um thick) from Wacker Chemie. We obtained an actuator composed of at least four layers. Thanks to a neat trick (Patent pending CH20190012), we are able to reach the electrical limit of the commercial material for a multilayer actuator.
DEAs test and modelling
We have developed an automatic test bench to evaluate and perform intensive tests of our actuator. The preliminary assessments show promising features both in terms of the actuator characteristics and the test bench capability. We have compared these measurements to our Finite Element Model to validate the latter. We now have a near-predictive model that will be useful to optimize the final actuator.
© Werner Siemens Stiftung, Félix Wey
Flowloop and Windkessel model
We have a mock-up Flow loop that imitates the blood circulatory system. We have undertaken our first attempt to plug our actuator on the flowloop.
In parallel, we have established a more accurate, lumped model that is based on the Windkessel model and in which we have integrated our actuator model. This tool will allow us to forecast the blood circulatory system’s response according to our actuator activation. The preliminary measurements on the flowloop will allow us to adjust our modified lumped model to match the body’s behavior as closely as possible.
The lumped model has also highlighted that one ring might be a good starting device to support the heart. It allows us to modify the pressure after the aortic valve. We have been able to demonstrate that we are capable of modifying the heart’s energy or blood flow rate by approximately 10 % depending on the way we actuate our device.
© Werner Siemens Stiftung, Félix Wey
Power supply
We already have a custom-made, compact set-up showing the wireless power transfer working on a battery. We have also developed our own electronic system going from 12 V to 7 kV. This electronic should also allow us to harvest the electrical energy stored in our actuator in order to increase the global efficiency of our system. We have just started to plug the new electronic to our actuator.
We plan to merge the two electronic subsystems in 2020 resulting in an efficient power supply.
© Werner Siemens Stiftung, Félix Wey
