Publications by Amine Benouhiba

DEyeA: Artificial Muscles for the Restoration of Eye Blinking Following Facial Paralysis (Adv. Mater. Technol. 12/2025)

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Amine Benouhiba

Wiley2025

DEyeA: Artificial Muscles for the Restoration of Eye Blinking Following Facial Paralysis

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Amine Benouhiba

Facial nerve palsy results in the inability to control facial muscles, including the Orbicularis Oculi, which is the main muscle enabling the blinking action. Blinking is not only important for responding socially to other humans, it is also essential for ...

Wiley2025

Towards Artificial Muscle Implants: Structured Reinforcement of Dielectric Elastomers

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Amine Benouhiba

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are a recent type of smart materials that show impressive performances as soft actuators, making them a promising technology for the development of implantable artificial muscles and soft robotic devices. Notably, they ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2025

Breaking the Cardiovascular Flow Barrier for Dielectric Elastomer Actuator-Based Pumping: Design and Characterization

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Silje Ekroll Jahren, Francesco Clavica, Armando Matthieu Walter, Amine Benouhiba

Pumps play a crucial role in sustaining life by facilitating fluid circulation within the human body. This article presents the design and characterization of a high-performance tubular dielectric elastomer pump. The study investigates three distinct pump ...

2025

Soft Beats: A Dielectric Elastomer-Based Ventricular Assist Device for Next-Gen Heart Failure Management

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Silje Ekroll Jahren, Francesco Clavica, Armando Matthieu Walter, Amine Benouhiba

Ventricular assist devices (VADs) are vital for patients with severe heart failure but often face limitations in energy efficiency and adaptability. To address these challenges, the dielectric elastomer-based electropneumatic device (DE-EPD) is introduced, ...

2025

The elastic frontier: dielectric elastomer actuators in healthcare technology

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Amine Benouhiba, Simon Holzer

This review presents a detailed survey of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs) and their emerging role in medical applications. DEAs are distinguished by their flexibility, low weight, and excellent biocompatibility, making them well-suited for a wide ran ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2025

An artificial urinary sphincter based on dielectric elastomer technology

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Quentin Philippe Mario De Menech, Sloan Zammouri, Amine Benouhiba

Urinary incontinence (UI) is prevalent and distressing medical condition affecting millions of patients worldwide. Current treatment options for severe cases often involve surgical intervention, such as the implantation of an artificial urinary sphincter ( ...

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)2024

Investigation of buckling instabilities in fiber-reinforced DEAs

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Amine Benouhiba

Artificial muscles, designed to replicate the movements of natural biological muscles, hold significant promise in the fields of robotics and prosthetics. Recent advancements have led to the development of fiber-reinforced actuators, drawing inspiration fr ...

Elsevier BV2024

Dielectric elastomer actuator-based valveless pump as Fontan failure assist device: introduction and preliminary study

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Silje Ekroll Jahren, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Francesco Clavica, Armando Matthieu Walter, Amine Benouhiba

OBJECTIVES: Fontan failure refers to a condition in which the Fontan circulation, a surgical procedure used to treat certain congenital heart defects, becomes insufficient, leading to compromised cardiac function and potential complications. This in vitro ...

Oxford Univ Press2024

Characterisation of Polymer Materials for the Development of an Artificial Urethra

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Quentin Philippe Mario De Menech, Amine Benouhiba

Low Urinary Tract Dysfunctions (LUTD) and in particular Urinary Incontinence (UI) is a medical condition affecting millions of people worldwide. In this context researchers and engineers performed tests on porcine and human urethras. However, ethical conce ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.2024

Mechanical Characterisation of Porcine Urethra: Non Linear Constitutive Models and Experimental Approach

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Quentin Philippe Mario De Menech, Amine Benouhiba

Low urinary tract dysfunctions and symptoms (LUTS) and Urinary incontinence (UI) in particular is a medical condition that affects millions of people worldwide. One of the most promising long term treatments for this condition is the use of an artificial u ...

IEEE2023

Dielectric Elastomer Actuator-Based Valveless Impedance-Driven Pumping for Meso- and Macroscale Applications

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Silje Ekroll Jahren, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Francesco Clavica, Armando Matthieu Walter, Amine Benouhiba

Impedance pumps are simple designs that allow the generation or amplification of flow. They are fluid-filled systems based on flexible tubing connected to tubing with different impedances. A periodic off-center compression of the flexible tubing causes the ...

2023

Real-time actuation of a dielectric elastomer actuator neuroprosthesis for facial paralysis

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Armando Matthieu Walter, Amine Benouhiba

Facial paralysis is a highly burdening condition, resulting in a patient's inability to move his mimic musculature on one or both sides of his face. This condition compromises the patient's communication and facial expressions, and thus dramatically reduce ...

2023

Soft Actuators for Facial Reanimation

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Amine Benouhiba

Facial paralysis is a challenging condition that alters a patient's ability to express emotion and communicate. Restoring facial movements thus has crucial implications for the patients' quality of life. This publication introduces an approach for artifici ...

IEEE2022

Influence of Axial Pre-stretch on Tubular Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Armando Matthieu Walter, Amine Benouhiba

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), also known as artificial muscles, are a sub-class of electroactive polymers (EAP). Due to their many qualities, such as high actuation strain, high bandwidth, high energy density, and a flexible body, they have shown ...

IEEE2022