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Electroactive Polymers for Robotic Applications

Artificial Muscles and Sensors

herausgegeben von: Kwang J. Kim, PhD, Satoshi Tadokoro

Verlag: Springer London

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

Electroactive polymers (EAPs) respond to electrical stimulation with large deformations. They are dynamic actuators which have interested an interdisciplinary audience of engineers and scientists. An enabling EAP technology is emerging which attempts to imitate the properties of natural muscle and which can perform a unique function in a variety of biologically-inspired robotics applications.

This book covers the properties, modelling and demonstration of EAPs in robotic applications, focusing on artificial muscles and sensors. Ionic Polymer–Metal Composite Actuators and Dielectric Elastomers are discussed with chapters on their properties and their uses in robotics applications.

With its concentration on devices based on EAPs and their uses, this book will interest researchers working within the field as well as postgraduate students studying robotics or smart materials and structures. Practitioners working in the mechanical, electrical and materials industries will also find this book of value.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

1. Active Polymers: An Overview

1.4. Concluding Remarks

It can be seen from the above reported research and the scale of the academic interest in active polymer materials, that they have the potential to become an indispensable part of future technological developments. With each polymer having its own niche applications, they are bound to be the materials of future. With growing emphasis on interdisciplinary research, different active materials can be combined to develop tailor-made, multifunctional properties, where single materials can act as sensors, actuators, structural elements, etc.

To date, the robotics community has adopted only two major active polymer technologies: dielectric elastomers and ionic polymer-metal composites because the maturity of these two technologies is inevitable. However, other technologies are also quite promising and leaves one the great potentials to use them in robotic applications. Two other technologies that the robotics community is currently considering are conducting polymers and electrostrictive graft elastomers. In later chapters, we will focus on four major active polymer technologies: dielectric elastomers (Chapters 2 and 3), electrostrictive graft elastomers (Chapter 4), conducting polymers (Chapter 5), and ionic polymer-metal composites (Chapters 6–10). We all expect that the robotics community will adopt other promising active polymer materials as their maturity and availability improve.

R. Samatham, K. J. Kim, D. Dogruer, H. R. Choi, M. Konyo, J. D. Madden, Y. Nakabo, J. -D. Nam, J. Su, S. Tadokoro, W. Yim, M. Yamakita

2. Dielectric Elastomers for Artificial Muscles

J. -D. Nam, H. R. Choi, J. C. Koo, Y. K. Lee, K. J. Kim

3. Robotic Applications of Artificial Muscle Actuators

3.4 Conclusions

Research and development of the dielectric elastomer actuator have produced significant progress for decades. A remarkable amount of work has focused on delivering the feasibility of the industrial application of the material. However, few commercial products equipped with polymer actuators have been introduced in the market, probably because most of the research has been dedicated either to discovering new actuation properties of the polymeric material or comparative study of the operating range of a particular traditional actuator and its polymeric substitute.

One of the implications of the term “actuator” might be a “controllable” motion generator. If a material produces just some motions, it can not be referred as an actuator unless its motions are controlled. The actuator designs introduced in this chapter have been developed under a common philosophy that actuator motions should be controllable with a reasonable amount of control actions. This clearly differs from many previous developments. The physics of the polymeric material actuation and its construction as an actuator is quite straightforward if a proper application is well sought in advance. In other words, if a good application where the polymer actuators can be used is established and the actuator functionality is well defined, application of the current dielectric elastomer actuator technology to industrial products could be accomplished before long. Future research activity may focus on development of a new energy effective material that has higher permittivity and creation of new application fields such as biomimetic robotics and tactile or braille displays.

H. R. Choi, K. M. Jung, J. C. Koo, J. D. Nam

4. Ferroelectric Polymers for Electromechanical Functionality

J. Su

5. Polypyrrole Actuators: Properties and Initial Applications

5.1 Summary

Polypyrrole actuators are low-voltage (1–3 V), moderate to large strain (2–35%), and relatively high stress (up to 34 MPa) actuator materials. Strain rates are moderate to low, reaching 11%/s, and frequency response can reach several hertz. Faster response (> 1 kHz) is anticipated in nanostructured materials. Forces can be maintained with minimal power expenditure. This chapter reports on the current status and some of the anticipated properties of conducting polymer actuators. Applications investigated to date include braille cells, shape changing stents, and variable camber foils. Situations where low voltage operation is valuable and volume or mass are constrained favor the use of conducting polymers.

Polypyrrole and other conducting polymers are typically electrochemically driven and can be constructed in linear or bending (bilayer) geometries. Synthesis can be by chemical or electrochemical means, and raw materials are generally very low in cost. These polymers are electronically conducting organic materials. They also allow ions to diffuse or migrate within them. An Increase in the voltage applied to a polymer electrode leads to removal of electrons and an increasingly positive charge within the volume of the polymer. This charge is balanced by negative ions that enter the polymer from a neighboring electrolyte phase (or by positive ions that leave). Ion insertion is generally accompanied by expansion of the polymer. The ions, solvent, and synthesis conditions determine the extent of this expansion, which can be anisotropic. A change in modulus has also been observed as a function of the oxidation state.

Models relating charge, strain, voltage, stress, and current have been developed that allow designers to evaluate the feasibility of designs. One of these modeling approaches is presented with the aim of enabling selection of appropriate device geometry.

The field of conducting polymer actuators is developing rapidly with larger strains, stresses, cycle lifetimes, and rates reported every year. The background needed to understand these developments and to decide if polypyrrole and in general conducting polymer actuators are appropriate for use in a given application is provided.

J. D. Madden

6. Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite as a New Actuator and Transducer Material

K. J. Kim

7. Biomimetic Soft Robots Using IPMC

Y. Nakabo, T. Mukai, K. Asaka

8. Robotic Application of IPMC Actuators with Redoping Capability

8.7 Conclusions

We have discussed the development of a linear actuator using IPMC materials and its applications to a walking robot and a snakelike robot. In this monograph, the doping effects on motion were focused on especially, and it was shown by numerical simulations of walking control and by an experiment of a swimming control of the snakelike robot that the properties of the actuator can be adjusted according to particular motions, i.e., slow speed motion with low energy consumption or high speed motion with high energy consumption. Also, a possibility that some actuators distributed in a system can be partially doped with a desired ion by moving the actuators mechanically was shown by a preliminary experiment. The authors consider that the developed IPMC linear actuator can be used for biomimetic control systems where the properties of the system can be adapted to an environment using doping effects.

To apply the artificial muscle actuator to a general robotic system, there exist a lot of problems such as limitation of output force; however, we think the mutual evolution of improvement of actuator technology and design of control system is important for further applications.

M. Yamakita, N. Kamamichi, Z. W. Luo, K. Asaka

9. Applications of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites: Multiple-DOF Devices Using Soft Actuators and Sensors

9.6. Conclusions

In this paper, we described several robotic applications developed using IPMC materials, which the authors have been developed as attractive soft actuators and sensors. We introduced following unique devices as applications of IPCM actuators: (1) haptic interface for virtual tactile displays, (2) distributed actuation devices, and (3) a soft micromanipulation device with three degrees of freedom. We also focused on aspects of sensor function of IPMC materials. The following applications are described: (1)a three-DOF tactile sensor and (2)a patterned sensor on an IPMC film.

M. Konyo, S. Tadokoro, K. Asaka

10. Dynamic Modeling of Segmented IPMC Actuator

10.5 Conclusions

In this study, we described the analytical framework for deriving the dynamic model of the segmented IPMC. For the electromechanical property of the IPMC, a simple RC model is used and the finite-element approach is used for dynamic modeling of the mechanical portion of the segmented IPMC. The proposed modeling approach can be used for designing various controllers for effective underwater propulsion and other robotics applications where soft and complex motion are required. The proposed segmented IPMC can be a possible solution because each segment of the IPMC can be bent individually. The state space equation developed using a large deflection beam model was simulated for different input voltages, and simulation results show that the proposed model can be effectively used for estimating the motion of the segmented IPMC in various applications.

W. Yim, K. J. Kim

Backmatter

Titel: Electroactive Polymers for Robotic Applications
herausgegeben von: Kwang J. Kim, PhD
Satoshi Tadokoro
Verlag: Springer London
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-84628-372-7
Print ISBN: 978-1-84628-371-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-372-7

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