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I was watching a TED-talk on artificial muscle, HASEL, where the inventor demos that an insulated oil in the presence of electric potential field gets displaced due to induced Maxwell stress. In other words, electric potential gets converted directly to displacement, in contrast to electromagnetic actuation that convert electric potential to magnetic field, which in-turn produces motion due to field interaction.

Question: Is HASEL more efficient compared to electromagnetic actuators given then fact that electric potential is directly converted to motion, instead of intermediary potential (magnetic field) which in-turn convert motion in the case of electromagnetic actuators? The intermediary magnetic field also generates heat.

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    – BioPhysicist
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 11:58

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Short answer "No" HASEL is not more efficient then electromagnetic actuaturs.

The following is taken from their paper:

Peak specific power during contraction of the two-unit actuator was 614 W/kg; specific work during contraction was 70 J/kg (fig. S12) (24). The measured peak specific power is double that of natural muscle and comparable to values for silicone DE actuators (26). Thermally activated coiled polymer fiber actuators (49.9 kW/kg)

We performed a full-cycle analysis of actuator efficiency using force displacement and voltage charge work-conjugate planes (fig. S4) (24). Conversion efficiency was 21%

while for electromagnetic motors has its “peak” specific power ranging from 1.1-3 kW /kg and efficiency of around 60%

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