UC San Diego

This work proposes, analyzes, designs, and validates superior topologies of Ultra High gain hybrid (UHGH) converters that are capable of supporting extremely large conversion ratios up to ~2000X and output voltage up to ~4–12 kV for future mobile soft robots from an input voltage as low as the range of a 1-cell battery pack. Thus, the converter makes soft robots standalone systems that can be untethered and mobile. The extremely large voltage gain is enabled by a unique hybrid combination of a high-gain switched magnetic element (HGSME) and a capacitor-based voltage multiplier rectifier (CVMR) that, together, achieve small overall size, efficient operation, and output voltage regulation and shaping with simple duty-cycle modulation. With superior performance, power density, and compact size, the UHGH converters prove to be a promising candidate for future untethered soft robots.