Electro-mechanical modelling and identification of electroactive polymer actuators as smart robotic manipulators

Electro-mechanical modelling and identification of electroactive polymer actuators as smart robotic manipulators

Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators, also known as artificial muscles, have remarkable properties such as low energy consumption, low weight, low actuation foot-print, compliance and bio-compatibility. Several methodologies have been proposed to model and analyse their quasi-static bending behaviour with negligible attention paid to their dynamic behaviour. We, therefore, report on an enhance...

Electromechanical Modelling of Ionic Electroactive Polymer Actuators

Migration of ions under electric field is the phenomenon behind the mechanical deformation of ionic polymer actuators. This transport process is influenced by numerous factors depending on the physical, chemical and electrical properties of the material used [1]. Among them porosity and tortuosity are one of the main influencing factors that modifies ion channels and so the properties of the ma...

Ionic electroactive polymer actuators as active microfluidic mixers

On-chip sample processing is integral to the continued development of lab-on-a-chip devices for various applications. An active microfluidic mixer prototype is proposed using ionic electroactive polymer actuators (IEAPAs) as artificial cilia. A proof-of-concept experiment was performed in which the actuators were shown to produce localized flow pattern disruptions in the laminar flow regime. Su...

Electroactive Thermoplastic Dielectric Elastomers as a New Generation Polymer Actuators

A methodology for identification and control of electro-mechanical actuators

Mechatronic systems are fully-integrated engineering systems that are composed of mechanical, electronic, and computer control sub-systems. These integrated systems use electro-mechanical actuators to cause the required motion. Therefore, the design of appropriate controllers for these actuators are an essential step in mechatronic system design. In this paper, a three-stage methodology for rea...