The ongoing climate crisis requires innovative methods to maximize renewable and sustainable energy resources. There have been advancements in harvesting energy from ambient motions such as wind, ocean waves, and human movements. Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) are a promising option for energy harvesting due to their high energy density and compatibility with low‐frequency oscillations. This review provides an in‐depth overview of DEGs, including electroactive materials, electromechanical characterization, electronics for harvesting, interfacing circuits, prototypes, and challenges. DEGs have the potential to play a significant role in decarbonizing energy for both small‐ and large‐scale applications using ambient energy sources.

An elastomeric class of flexible skin-based polymorphing wings changes its configuration to maximize performance at radically different flight conditions. One of the key design challenges for such an aircraft technology is the multiaxial deformation characterization and modeling of nonlinear elastomeric skins of polymorphing wings. In the current study, three elastomeric materials, Latex, Oppo, and Ecoflex, are experimentally characterized and modeled under all possible deformation modes such as uniaxial, pure shear, biaxial, and equibiaxial relevant for flexible skin-based morphing wing applications. Additionally, a novel material model with four material constants is proposed to model the considered elastomers-based morphing wings keeping all the material parameters constant for all the possible deformation modes. The present experimental and theoretical study provides a concise comparative study of the three elastomers used in the morphing wings tested in all possible deformation modes.

The use of elastomer-based skins in morphing wings has become increasingly popular due to their remarkable stretchability and mechanical properties. However, the possibility of the skin fracturing during multiaxial stretching remains a significant design challenge. The propagation of cracks originating from flaws or notches in the skin can lead to the specimen breaking into two parts. This paper presents an experimental study aimed at comprehensively evaluating crack propagation direction, stretchability, and fracture toughness of silicone-based elastomeric skin (Ecoflex) for morphing wing applications, using varying Shore hardness values (10, 30, and 50). The findings show that the lower Shore hardness value of 10 exhibits a unique Sideways crack propagation characteristic, which is ideal for morphing skins due to its high stretchability, low actuation load, and high fracture toughness. The study also reveals that the Ecoflex 10 is suitable for use in span morphing, with a fracture toughness of approximately 1.1 kJ/m${}^2$ for all thicknesses at a slower strain rate of 0.4 mm/min. Overall, this work highlights the superior properties of Ecoflex 10 and its potential use as a morphing skin material, offering a groundbreaking solution to the challenges faced in this field.