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. Dielectric elastomer generator systems (DEGSs) take advantage of electrostatic soft‐transducers to convert oscillating mechanical power into usable electricity. Over the past years, a diversity of DEGSs has been conceived with characteristics tailored to harvest energy from different sources such as ocean waves, human motion, and vibrations. Herein, an overview of the status of DEGS technology as of 2020 is provided.