Abstract: Based on the electromechanical characteristic of dielectric elastomer(DE) and concept of binary actuation,a parallel frame with three binary actuators is proposed as basic module of a serial-parallel discretely actuated robot system. A multistage discretely actuated system consisting of several such serial modules is also proposed.Firstly,a binary actuated cylinder actuator with the actuation characteristic is fabricated with the smart material DE,and its linear actuation characteristic (i.e.deformation) is tested.Then,The deformation value is applied to the mathematic model as input variable to analyze the motion state,kinematic characteristics and workspace of single-stage and multistage frame.Finally,with the help of Mathematica,the point clouds of the binary actuated parallel system's workspace are presented,and the effects of structural parameters and actuation values on workspace's scope and precision are analyzed.