What if the next generation of robot muscles were made of rubber, driven by static electricity, and could sense their own deformation? Federico Carpi introduces dielectric elastomer actuators , soft, lightweight, and already shipping in consumer electronics. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Federico Carpi makes the case that conventional electric motors are fundamentally mismatched to the needs of robots that must interact closely with humans. They are rigid, noisy, energy-hungry, and made of materials nothing like biological tissue. His alternative: electroactive polymers, specifically dielectric elastomers , essentially sheets of insulating rubber sandwiched between compliant electrodes. When voltage is applied, electrostatic forces squeeze the rubber, causing it to expand laterally. The principle is pure M ...